Half of new jobs go to foreigners


By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Correspondent


Last Updated: 12:15am BST 06/10/2007

More than half of all new jobs have gone to foreigners since Labour came to power.

The statistics put Britain is at the bottom of a European league of countries for getting jobs for its own citizens.

The figures, compiled by the House of Commons library using data from the European Labour Force Survey, showed that, between 1997 and 2006, 54 per cent of all new jobs in Britain – 862,000 jobs – were taken by foreigners, compared to 731,000 jobs for Britons.

Over the same period, the number of British nationals in the workforce went up by 2.8 per cent, compared to a 90 per cent increase in the number of foreigners. In a league table showing the increase of nationals in the workforce, Britain was ranked 11th out of 12 EU countries, behind Spain (32 per cent), France (13.6 per cent) and Germany (7.4 per cent). Only the Czech Republic was behind Britain.

James Clappison, the Tory MP who obtained the figures, said Britain's place in the table was due to its migration policies and the issuing of work permits. He added: "Gordon Brown's boast of British jobs for British workers is substantially hollow."

Half of new jobs go to foreigners - Telegraph