South Holland and the Deepings MP Sir John Hayes looks at immigration

MP Sir John Hayes examines immigration in his regular column, Hayes in the House

In all advanced economies some people choose to leave, others arrive and settle. Government has no role in the former but must confront the latter. It is right that we as a nation determine who comes to the UK, why they want to, and how long they hope to stay.

Over time Britain has welcomed all kinds of arrivals. From the Huguenots in the 17th century, to recently invited Ukrainians escaping the war there

Yet the sum of all these groups combined is dwarfed by the total quantity of immigrants that Britain admitted last year, with an astounding 1.2 million visas issued! Once the number that left Britain is subtracted, our population soared by a net figure of 606,000 over the last 12 months alone, and that is in addition to the 45,000 illegal migrants who breached our borders in small boats.

Housing more than half a million more people, given that we build less than 200,000 new homes each year, is unfeasible, all this puts “intolerable pressure” on public services and strains community cohesion, as the Immigration Minister acknowledged in Parliament.

Immigration at this level adds the equivalent of the number of people that live in the cities of Nottingham, Newcastle and Norwich combined every year.

Certainly the need for seasonal migrant labour is well understood here in Lincolnshire. The scheme that delivers it works because it is well defined, time limited, and capped with those coming reliably returning home once the season’s work is done. Uncontrolled mass immigration couldn’t be more different.

Meanwhile, work done locally at the University of Lincoln’s Holbeach campus with the food industry - which I have supported for many years - illustrates just how much difference automation can make to leading edge commercial success.

By contrast, maintaining a dependence on low skilled labour will stultify our economy, as we fail to train enough British craftsmen, cooks and computer engineers on the assumption that instead we can lazily import low-cost skilled labourers from abroad, suppressing wage rates for everyone.

The oft cited argument, that more migration delivers unqualified economic value, doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. The extraordinary number of visas issued succours a labour dependent, low skills economic model at a time we should be a building a high tech, high skilled economy. What’s worse, the habit of employing workers from overseas discourages, and so displaces, investment in domestic skills - including the upskilling of the existing workforce, automation and better working practices. As a result, productivity is inhibited and our competitiveness undermined.

Change is inevitable, but it must come at a pace that doesn’t alter, beyond recognition, the familiar touchstones of enduring certainty. To change the character of communities forever and overwhelm the public services on which wellbeing depends is certainly unethical and likely to be unpopular.

That most British people are fair minded is well illustrated by the warm welcome afforded to the Ukrainians who are living amongst us. Yet our characteristic sense of fair play is being stretched to breaking point by an immigration system in urgent need of reform.

In 2019 the Government pledged to introduce a system that “gives us real control over who is coming in and out”. Now is the time to finally keep that promise, and so deliver for the British people.