UK post-Brexit rules to 'turn off tap' of low-skilled foreign labor

In this file photo taken on October 9, 2018 Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray (L) and other activists stand outside parliament with EU and Union Flags as they protest in Parliament Square in London. (AFP photo)

Britain will no longer accept low-skilled labor from overseas and make it a requirement for anyone wishing to come to the country to have a job offer and meet salary and language requirements.

On January 31, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union after 47 years of membership, in a step cast by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the dawn of new era.

Despite the withdrawal, a transition period is still in effect until Dec. 31, during which time little changes.

As part of setting post-Brexit rules, interior minister Priti Patel said that the country will “turn off the tap” of foreign, low-skilled labor.

“Our new immigration system will turn off the tap of cheap, foreign low-skilled labor,” Patel wrote in The Sun on Sunday newspaper.

“From next year, all skilled workers will need to earn enough points to work in the UK. They will need to speak English, have a firm job offer, and meet the salary requirements.”

He went on to say that “overall numbers” would decline under the plan.

The government, however, said it would grant extra points to those immigrants working in sectors where there is a skills shortage.

Some opposition politicians have said that new restrictions could badly affect public services like the National Health Service which in certain areas depends on EU citizens who work as doctors and nurses.

After more than three years of wrangling, Britain remains as split over leaving the EU as it was in the 2016 referendum where Britons voted with a slight majority for their country to leave the union.

Johnson pledged to deliver a clean Brexit after winning the December 12 general election. He had called for the election in order to break a deadlock in parliament, which had blocked the country’s withdrawal from the European Union, more than three and a half years after the Brexit referendum in 2016.

London and Brussels will now spend this year having negotiations on the terms of a post-Brexit deal which will come into effect on Jan. 1.


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