Migrant permits should be time-specific - Farage

Migrant workers needed in the UK should only be employed on a "time-specific work permit", Nigel Farage said.

The leader of Reform UK and Clacton MP claimed care home workers were "necessary" rather than skilled and should not stay in the UK indefinitely.

But his view was attacked by Liberal Democrat MP Charlotte Cane, who said it was "absolutely a skilled task" and they should be paid properly and welcomed to the UK.

Labour MP for Ipswich, Jack Abbott, said the government was reducing immigration and would set up a pay review for people working in the care industry.

In an interview with BBC Politics East, Farage said: "If we really can't recruit people in Britain to work in care - and I believe we could with some tweaks to the tax system - recruit them on a time-specific contract with no entitlement to health care or social benefits.

"We give people who come in indefinite leave to remain and once they have got that they can then bring in their mum, their dad, their aunty, their uncle, theirs. That's what's gone wrong. We have been way too lax on this."

He said he recognised skilled workers, such as builders, were sometimes needed from abroad and saw care home workers as "necessary" workers rather than skilled.

Cane, the Ely and East Cambridgeshire MP, also appeared on the programme as part of a panel including Abbott and Tom Pursglove, the former Tory MP for Corby and ex-immigration minister.

Responding to Farage, Cane said: "We need to respect the value these people [migrants] are bringing to our country.

"I really do object to the suggestion that care workers aren't skilled. If you've ever watched a care worker work, they are hugely skilled and hugely important.

"We struggle to get enough care givers, who struggle to provide the care people need in their homes.

"We should be really grateful that these people are willing to come to our country to help us care for people in need and it is absolutely a skilled task. We also need to pay these people properly."

Abbott said: "One of the biggest reasons we have a social care problem in this country is because of retention and recruitment because we don't pay them properly.

"We are going to set up a pay review body to make sure we are paying people for the jobs they do.

"It's an important role but physically demanding too. We should be paying people properly."

Pursglove said the Conservative Party still needed to "rebuild trust with the public" on immigration.

But he said Labour's "Smash the Gangs" pledge, intended to target people-smuggling networks, was "a slogan not an action for government".

At the moment care workers coming to the UK have to pay either £284 for a three year visa or £551 if they intend to stay for more than five years.

On top of that, they will have to pay upfront £1,035 a year to use the NHS while they are in the UK and will be expected to prove they have savings of more than £1,270 to support themselves while they are here.

Since last March, they can no longer automatically bring their dependents with them.

Care home employers must pay £239, rising to £525 from April, for a certificate of sponsorship for every person they sponsor to come and work in the UK.

There is also a skills immigration surcharge to be paid of £364 for every year that that worker intends to be in Britain.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.

BBC Politics East will be broadcast on Sunday, 2 March at 10:00 GMT on BBC One in the East of England, and will be available after broadcast on BBC iPlayer.

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