The Reform UK party manifesto – which it calls a “contract” – focuses on immigration, tax, employment rights, DEI and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).
The party pledges to freeze non-essential immigration, with the only exception being for essential skills, especially in healthcare.
The party’s leader has also promised to raise the national insurance rate to 20% for foreign workers, to incentivise businesses to employ UK citizens. Essential workers would be exempt from the tax, as well as small businesses with five employees or fewer.
Vanessa Ganguin, managing partner at Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law, told HR magazine that the immigration measures would worsen skills shortages.
She said: “Chronic skills shortages are not only hampering the health and care sectors. Other sectors we work with like to employ staff locally, as it costs far less, but are often unable to.
“They already face some of the highest visa fees and minimum salary requirements in the world to sponsor staff they need when hiring from abroad. On top of that the immigration health surcharge currently adds £1,035 per year per person to the cost of a UK visa (£776 a year for children, students and Youth Mobility visas).
“Adding a further NI tax increase for non-resident employees would further hamstring UK businesses, making the UK perhaps the most expensive country in the world for work immigration.“
She added that the measures would particularly impact SMEs and the education and engineering sectors.
Read the full article in HR Magazine
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