• Luke votes against Immigration Bill which would harm NHS and Social Care
• Immigration Bill places NHS and social care workers in ‘unskilled’ category
• Labour will try to amend the Bill to improve it

Luke voted against the Immigration Bill at its Second Reading in Parliament on 18 May. It harms our NHS and the care sector, risking a shortage of nurses, carers and other key health workers in the middle of a global pandemic.

Rushing this Bill through Parliament during the Coronavirus Crisis is harmful and unnecessary. It labels so many of the workers who are keeping our country running day by day as unskilled and unwelcome.

Luke said:

“I voted against the Immigration Bill. We cannot clap our NHS and social scare staff one day and then pass laws saying they are unskilled and unwelcome the next. I hope the government reflects on this.”

The new immigration system proposed by the Government contains a salary threshold of £25,600 that will exclude health and social care workers we desperately need from our country and will have a devastating impact on the health and social care sector. It values workers by what they earn and not what they contribute to our society.

This means that social care workers supporting elderly and vulnerable people would no longer be able to come to this country under the Government’s proposed immigration system. This is an act of national self-harm with so many care sector vacancies and many vulnerable people not receiving the support they need.

The Bill will also hand over significant powers to the Government to create a new immigration system without proper parliamentary scrutiny.

Labour will look to improve the Bill as it passes through Parliament.