CABINET ministers are begging for foreign worker visas as often as every week because they cannot fill jobs with Brits, Shabana Mahmood has revealed.
admitted her Labour colleagues routinely come to her asking for permission to bring in overseas staff to plug urgent shortages.
She accused departments of becoming too reliant on “pulling the immigration lever” rather than training workers already in Britain.
Ms Mahmood told The Rest is Politics podcast: “The sheer number of requests I get from colleagues across government from other departments – can I have 10 visas over here for welders or something?”
She added: “I’m like, you’re telling me that we can’t find 10 welders?
“But it’s become a lever that is easy to pull. And everyone always says, well, it’s urgent, and we haven’t got the time. And I just think we should be more in control here.”
Asked whether Cabinet ministers really contacted her asking for visas for workers such as welders, she replied: “I have a conversation like that at least once every week or two. It happens all the time.
“From their side of the equation, they’d be thinking, we’ve got to plug a gap really quickly.
“And this is the best way to do it really quickly. To which I would say you’ve got to be able to do a bit more long term planning for your workforce in your own country. This is how you end up with a million NEETs.”
The Home Secretary singled out , saying the sector was “riven with poor pay and conditions” and “often very abusive working conditions”.
But Ms Mahmood stressed Britain would still need workers from overseas where there was a genuine labour shortage.
She said ministers should first improve skills, workforce planning, pay and conditions in Britain before automatically reaching for more .
Her comments come days after she signalled she could soften controversial plans to make some foreign workers wait longer for permanent residency.
The proposals would normally double the route to settled status from five to 10 years, while some health and care workers could face waits of up to 15 years.
Ms Mahmood has faced pressure from Housing Secretary , more than 100 Labour MPs and unions, who say it would unfairly “move the goalposts” for migrants who came to Britain legally.
