Record seven million immigrants are now working in Britain and hold down one in five jobs

A RECORD seven million immigrants are working in Britain — holding down one in five jobs, figures show.

The number has rocketed by two million in just the past decade.

It includes 1.4million non-EU workers arriving since the pandemic began while EU-born worker numbers fell by 230,000 to 2.2million, the Office for National Statistics reported.

Robert Bates, from the Centre for Migration Control, said: “It is too easy for businesses to shirk their obligations to the British public and to simply hire cheap labour from overseas.

“This needs to change if we want to build a high-skill, high-wage economy.”

No10 said Sir Keir Starmer believed the numbers were “far too high” and must come down.

The PM said previously that there was an over-reliance on migrants owing to a lack of workplace training for young people.

He claimed the new Skills England body would plug gaps but there was no quick fix.

Alp Mehmet, of Migration Watch, said: “We said in late 2019 that the loose points-based system, introduced in 2021, without a cap, would mean 9million full-time UK jobs being exposed to a massive pool of cheaper foreign workers.

"Jobs here are still open to foreign workers and Labour won’t do anything about it.”

The Centre for Migration Control added: “It is too easy for businesses to shirk their obligations to the British public and to simply hire cheap labour from overseas.

"This needs to change if we want to build a high-skill, high-wage economy.”