Sajid Javid to scrap plans that recommended EU migrants must earn £30k to work in Brexit Britain
SAJID JAVID is ripping up Theresa May’s post-Brexit plans for a £30,000 minimum salary threshold for EU migrants, The Sun can reveal.
The Tory leadership hopeful wants a powerful committee to look into lowering prospective wage bands in a move that will enrage Tory Eurosceptics.
In an explosive letter, he instructs the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to consider allowing firms to pay the “going rate” for foreign recruits after Brexit – and to look at regional wage limits.
He also wants them to study exemptions for a range of professions, and whether “new entrants” or inexperienced workers can be paid less.
The MAC only last September recommended ministers force business to pay migrants £30,000 a year or more after Brexit. It said the strict limit would also help boost wages for UK workers.
A source said: “Saj is basically telling the MAC to go away and do their work all over again. He knows Theresa is off and he’s cashing in.”
Migration Watch last night said the move was a huge sop to big business – and could cripple Government attempts to bring immigration down.
Andrew Green, the think tank’s chairman said: “This looks like an attempt to get some cover for yet more concessions.”
The MAC’s £30,000 minimum salary threshold was contained in the controversial Immigration White Paper released in December.
While Theresa May backed it and said the MAC had been “very clear”, she was bitterly opposed by the Chancellor and Business Secretary Greg Clark.
In a compromise, Mr Javid committed to consult with business on the final level.
In the letter to MAC chair Professor Alan Manning he makes clear he now wants the Committee “involved in the process”.
He says: “The Government is committed to engaging extensively over the course of this year before confirming the level of the minimum salary threshold.
“As part of this engagement, the MAC is now asked to advise on a number of issues.” They will report back at the end of 2019 - two months after a possible No Deal departure.
Official figures last week revealed the number of EU nationals working in the UK hit a record high in the three months to March.
Scotching talk of a ‘Brexodus’, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said 2.4 million EU citizens had a job in the UK – up more than 100,000 on the final quarter of 2018.
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