British PM Liz Truss to ease visa rules to tackle labour crunch

London, September 25

British PM Liz Truss is set to launch a major review of the country’s visa system in a move to tackle acute labour shortages in key industries, a paper reported on Sunday.

The PM is set to defy some of her anti-immigration Cabinet colleagues by making changes to the “shortage occupation list”, allowing certain industries to bring in more staff — such as broadband engineers — from overseas, the paper said. The review could also endorse a loosening of the requirement to speak English in some sectors to enable more foreign workers into the country, the report said, citing a Downing Street official.

Asked about the idea that immigration rules might be relaxed, UK finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng said on Sunday: “It’s not about relaxing rules. The whole point about the Brexit debate if we want to go down there was we need to control immigration in a way that works for the UK.” Truss’ office did not respond for comment. — Reuters 

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