'Stop bringing in foreign workers to fill social care jobs', says Bolton Tory MP Chris Green

The social care sector is facing its worst staffing shortage in living memory and things are only getting worse. But is the answer to cut the visa scheme that allows foreign workers to come in and look after our most vulnerable loved ones?

That's the view of the New Conservatives, a group featuring a number of Greater Manchester MPs who say their plan to stop issuing visas to care workers will help cut migration levels and mean homegrown workers should end up getting paid more.

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Speaking on The Northern Agenda podcast this week one member of the group, Bolton West MP Chris Green, said he believed the policy was worth pursuing for Rishi Sunak as the current 'very open' system wasn't working.

With net migration now at above 600,000, fellow Northern Tory Miriam Cates warned Rishi Sunak he faced defeat at the next general election unless emergency measures to curb net migration are introduced.

Listen to the full interview on The Northern Agenda podcast here:

And the Penistone and Stocksbridge MP said care home bosses should employ “local young people” instead of relying on foreign labour.

Her group, made up of Tory MPs from the 2017 and 2019 intake, said British employers had become “addicted” to cheap foreign labour as they argued it was time to “turn off the taps” of low-skilled workers arriving from abroad.

"You think at what point, when we're looking at business, whether it's care homes, whether it's the fruit pickers and farms, whatever it might be in British society, or British business, where we say we need more people coming in, at what point do you say, 'enough have come in to fill these vacancies'," said Mr Green, who was