The prime minister is planning to increase the cap on unskilled seasonal workers who can come to the UK by 20,000 per year, The Times has learnt.
The move has opened another split in immigration policy with Suella Braverman, the home secretary, who said this week that she wants to “substantially reduce” the number of unskilled foreign workers coming to the UK. She also said farmers must end “reliance” on foreign workers and replace them with domestic workers and automation.
Currently, farmers can recruit up to 40,000 foreign workers to pick fruit, vegetables and flowers under the seasonal worker visa scheme, an increase from 30,000 in 2021. In the first six months of this year, 26,481 visas had been issued, two thirds of the annual cap.
Liz Truss has told cabinet ministers that she wants the cap raised to 60,000, a senior government source said, as part of her supply-side plans to stimulate economic growth. She is also understood to be open to the prospect of temporarily expanding the seasonal worker visa scheme to other sectors to fill labour shortages, as well as relaxing the six-month limit on how long individuals can stay in the UK.
The scheme is currently limited to foreign migrants in the horticulture industry but was temporarily expanded last year to allow employers to recruit poultry and pork butchers, and HGV drivers, amid a shortage of workers last year.
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The prime minister revealed her plans to raise the seasonal worker cap as part of government discussions on how immigration can be used to boost economic growth. She has insisted that she wants net migration to come down, but believes that some visa routes can be opened up in the short term to supply the workers needed to plug labour shortages.
However, her desire to raise the cap is likely to attract claims she is pandering to the farming industry. The National Farmers Union has campaigned for the cap to be increased to 70,000. The Office for National Statistics estimates that up to 75,000 seasonal workers are needed each harvest season.
Truss’s attempts to increase the cap are expected to be opposed by Braverman, who used several events at the Conservative Party conference to criticise the number of unskilled migrants allowed into the UK and insist employers should recruit domestic workers.
The home secretary said she was “not persuaded” by those who suggest British people do not want to work on farms, saying: “There are studies which show that young people just don’t know enough about farming.” She said too many farmers were “looking abroad as the first port of call”.
Two thirds of the 19,894 migrants who came to the UK on seasonal worker visas last year were Ukrainian, but this has fallen substantially this year. They have been replaced by migrants from central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, according to Home Office data.
