Move to restrict foreign hiring

The government has unveiled plans aimed at cutting the number of skilled foreign workers entering the UK from outside the EU.

The measures include a list of job types for which foreign workers can be recruited in areas that currently suffer from skills shortages, such as maths or science teachers, chefs, veterinary surgeons, quantity surveyors and ship and hovercraft officers.

But midwives, social workers and IT technicians do not make the list, while care workers will have to be taken on at £8.80 an hour to qualify.

The government argues such a scheme will prove more effective than imposing a numbers-based restriction and will ensure British and EU nationals have more chance of landing a job.