[T]he latest figures show that foreign workers are thriving in the labour market as Britons lose jobs.
The Office for National Statistics revealed that 280,000 fewer UK nationals were working in the three months to September compared to the same period a year earlier – a one per cent fall to a total of 26.6 million people. But the number of non-British *workers rose six per cent, by 147,000, to 2.56 million.
The increase in foreign nationals in work included a 93,000 (16.3 per cent) rise in those from eastern European countries which joined the EU in 2004.
There was a 28,000 (35 per cent) increase in workers from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Yesterday’s gloom was heightened by announcements from British Gas, *mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan, and Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks of nearly 1,700 job cuts, as the Bank of England cut growth forecasts.
The figures led to uncomfortable questioning for ministers...
Tory MP Philip Hollobone, pointing to previous figures showing nine out of 10 new jobs are going to foreigners, said: “This is simply unsustainable.
“As a nation we can’t go on like this. We have to control our borders once again, but we also have to incentivise young British workers to go out and find the jobs that foreign nationals are picking up.’’
Fellow Tory MP Philip Davies said: “We’re mad in this country, that we allow people to come here to take jobs – a lot of them low-skilled jobs which people in this country would be more than capable of doing if they got off their backsides.” Ministers insist youth unemployment is a long-standing problem, rising by 40 per cent under Labour, and starting well before the recession.
Tories also accuse Labour of opening Britain’s jobs market to an eastern *European free-for-all by failing to put limits on their citizens’ rights to work, as most other EU countries did when the nations joined the club in 2004...
He said the risk that many youngsters would stay on the dole as adults was a “timebomb” for the economy.