Britain’s failed experiment in boosting low-wage sectors
Brexiteers’ plan to choke off immigration from Europe, to boost productivity, has not worked
THE BREXiTEER plan to end free movement from the European Union was not only about satisfying popular hostility to immigration. Leavers also talked of fixing Britain’s perennial productivity problems. Boris Johnson, as prime minister in 2021, described a future that was “high wage, high skill, high productivity”, and would be realised only if Britain kicked its addiction to cheap foreign labour.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “A failed experiment”
Britain August 26th 2023
From the August 26th 2023 edition
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