According to the latest estimates available, about 7 to 8 per cent. of those in employment are foreign nationals; in 1997, the figure was 3 to 4 per cent. The employment rate of both UK and foreign nationals has increased since 1997, from 73.2 per cent. in 1997 to 74.8 per cent. in 2007 for UK nationals, and from 60.6 per cent. to 67.6 per cent. for foreign nationals in the same period.
I am grateful to the Secretary of State for such a comprehensive answer. When the Prime Minister said,
“British jobs for British workers”,
he knew that that policy was illegal under European Union law. Given the facts that the Secretary of State has just stated, would the Prime Minister have been straight with the British people had he said, “British jobs for European workers”?
The Prime Minister set out very clearly his objective, my objective and the Government’s objective of getting British benefit claimants to become British workers by getting into British jobs. That is our strategy; it is perfectly in line with EU law, and it marks a strong contrast with the record of the Conservative Government, under whom the benefits mountain mushroomed. We have now taken 1 million people off benefits, and many more people are coming into jobs every week as a result of our Government’s employment programmes.
Following on from the question put by my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone), is the Secretary of State telling the House that he agrees with the Prime Minister’s statement that there should be British jobs for British people, when most hon. Members believe that such a slogan is one that we would find the British National party using, and is neither enforceable nor legal?
I have just explained to the House, and I remind the hon. Gentleman of what I said. Does he not support the Government in getting people off benefit and into work—getting British people off benefits and into British jobs? Of course he should support us. That is our objective and that is what the Prime Minister was talking about. The vehicle for doing that is the signing up of more than 200 local employment partnerships, with employers joining them, to get people directly off incapacity benefit and into work, and to get older people and lone parents into work. Our aim is precisely to achieve genuine full employment—an objective whose achievement was completely impossible under the Tory Government, but is now in sight as a result of our policies.
Sections of the British economy, not least the national health service, the caring professions, the construction industry and food processing, have benefited enormously from the efforts of foreign-born workers, but if we are to continue to benefit, the general public must have greater confidence in the figures that the Government produce. Does my right hon. Friend agree that there is a risk that “official Government statistics” will become a term of abuse and dispute?
If my hon. Friend is saying that the statistics produced for Ministers and used publicly in good faith should be the best possible estimates, I completely agree with him. That is why, at the earliest opportunity, when the Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint), and I discovered that we had been wrongly advised about those estimates, we immediately corrected them to the House. In addition, at my first opportunity I phoned the shadow Secretary of State to tell him, so that he could go out and attack the Government’s record in the media. He had plenty of warning.
There are two ways of dealing with the problem of immigration. One is to welcome the economically active and very intelligent workers whom we have taken into my constituency, largely from Poland. The other is deliberately to foment trouble by attacking such workers in the local paper and having pictures taken outside Polish shops, as though they were not only a wave of invaders who are damaging the economy, but totally unacceptable. Will my right hon. Friend condemn those who, for narrow political purposes, seek to foment trouble between a stable section of society and one that will benefit from the incomers?
I could not have put it better myself; my hon. Friend is absolutely right. The truth is that foreign nationals have made a significant contribution to Britain’s economy over the years, including as regards our recent record of growth and rises in wealth. They have made a positive contribution in her constituency and, I am sure, every other constituency in the country.
The hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody) was absolutely right in what she said, and many of us realise the problems that she faces in her constituency, but are not the Government aware that unless foreign workers are regulated and restricted in coming to this country, it is likely that a lot of them coming here will depress the wages of the lower-income groups in this country? That is surely a disadvantage and, in times of rising unemployment—maybe we will get that—there could be a problem; social tension might be created. Is it not responsible to take a really sensible line on the number of immigrant workers who come to this country?
I am very much in favour of sensible lines. In respect of the problem, the hon. Gentleman is right to say that there is a danger that foreign nationals could depress wage levels. That is why the minimum wage that we brought in must be enforced rigorously throughout the economy. In some cases, that is not happening, and foreign nationals themselves are being exploited, so we are bringing in tougher measures to ensure that it does happen—and to enforce employment rights, which are not always enforced. I hope that he will join me in insisting that the legal rights for which we have legislated as a Government, including the minimum wage, are properly respected, in Macclesfield and elsewhere.
The Secretary of State was right in his statistic when he told the House that the proportion of non-UK workers in the work force has almost doubled since 1997. He could have added that the proportion of UK workers has fallen in the same period. Furthermore, is he aware that since 1995, the number of British jobs occupied by British workers has decreased? At the same time, there has been a continued increase in the number of non-UK nationals in employment, including both EU nationals, to whom the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody) referred, and non-EU nationals. The Government continue to issue an ever-increasing number of work permits, at a time when there is an influx of nationals from the A8 states. Is it not time for proper co-ordination between Departments on the issuing of work permits, rather than country-cramming and idle boasts about British jobs for British workers?
If the hon. Gentleman supported the policy of identity cards, it might be easier to resolve the question that he has put. Let us look at the facts. The facts are that we have seen a million more British nationals in jobs under our Government. Unemployment and the claimant count rate are at an historically low level. There are 660,000 job vacancies in the British economy today and every day. Also—this is crucial to a sensible analysis of the debate—the number of working-age British people has fallen significantly, because it is an ageing society. Therefore, one might also ask the question: what if those foreign nationals, including those from Europe, had not been here to fill the jobs in the gap that an ageing population left behind? That is why we want to get more people off benefits and into work, and why the Prime Minister’s policy of getting British benefit claimants into British jobs, so that they become British workers, is the right policy.