'No good reason UK cannot train its own fruit pickers, butchers to reduce immigration': Suella Braverman

Britain's Indian-origin Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, on Monday, while addressing the National Conservatism Conference in London, issued a stark warning against rapid migration into the country and called on the Conservative Party to re-establish its commitment to bring down immigration.

The 43-year-old Tory MP asserted that the industries facing a labour shortage in the United Kingdom should train more people within the country rather than bringing foreign workers from overseas.

"There is no good reason the UK cannot train its own lorry drivers and fruit pickers to bring immigration down," said Braverman.

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She argued that it was 'not racist' to make efforts to control the borders, according to an excerpt of the speech released by the BBC.

She further said, "We must not forget how to do things for ourselves".

"It's not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration is unsustainable in terms of housing supply, public services and community relations," she said.

"While illegal migration is rightly our priority given the acute challenges we face in the [English] Channel, we must not lose sight of the importance of controlling legal migration too," she added.

Braverman further stressed that there was nothing wrong about someone from an ethnic minority background making such arguments using her parents' reference as having come to the UK through 'legal and controlled migration'.

"They spoke the language. They threw themselves into the community and embraced British values. When they arrived, they signed up to be part of our shared project because the UK meant something distinct. Integration was part of the quid pro quo," she noted.

"The unexamined drive towards multiculturalism as an end in itself, combined with identity politics, is a recipe for communal disaster. We cannot have immigration without integration," she said.

Braverman claimed that she had 'voted and campaigned for' Brexit as she wanted Britain to control migration and also have a call on what works for the country and what doesn't.

"High-skilled workers support economic growth. And where the labour market has acute or structural shortages, as with the NHS, it is of course right that we should have an immigration system agile enough to plug those shortages. But we need to get overall immigration numbers down," the Brexit-backing Cabinet minister said.

Her speech is being viewed by many as a warning shot to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to focus more on his efforts of cutting down immigration.

"More immigration needed in short term to boost economic growth," say senior Conservatives

Trade Minister Nigel Huddleston was quoted as saying by the BBC, "Every now and again we also need more people to come into the country, but the key thing was to have control."

"In the long term, we need immigration to come down because that's what has been causing some challenges in local areas for a long period of time," he added.

PM Sunak's promise to 'stop the boats'

PM Rishi Sunak vowed to 'stop the boats' used by dozens of immigrants every year to travel to Britain's shores from northern Europe in his efforts to reduce immigration.

According to AFP, more than 45,000 arrived last year, continuing a trend that took off in 2018.

(With inputs from agencies)

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