The majority of remain voters think that the UK’s public services will collapse if foreign workers are barred by Brexit, new research has revealed.
Some 71% of remain voters fear services like the NHS will not function if migrant doctors, nurses, cleaners and technicians are no longer available, the poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner on behalf of the New Economics Forum found.
The results of the poll, which will be released on Tuesday, also found almost two thirds (60%) believe that immigration has benefited the UK’s national culture.
In a blog on HuffPost UK, Marc Stears, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation said: “These voters know Britain’s future success will not be built either by turning away from the world nor seeking to divide our communities between migrants and non-migrants.
“They know, instead, that we need to develop solutions that work for both Leave and Remain voters. Solutions that show that there is no trade-off to be made by remaining proudly internationalist and pursuing socially-inclusive solutions that make a real difference to people’s lives.”
The poll’s results come as defence secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC that UK companies will not have to name their foreign workers.
He said: “We are not proposing to ask companies to name, list, identify or shame those who happen to be foreign”.
In her speech at the Tory party conference earlier this month, Amber Rudd said companies could be forced to declare their non-British workers, who should be prevented from taking “the jobs that British people should do.”
Rudd’s proposals were criticised by business groups, MPs and even her own brother.
Earlier this week, people also leapt to the defence of foreign doctors working for the NHS after Jeremy Hunt and Theresa May’s latest comments on their plans for the future of the workforce.
The prime minister appeared to suggest foreign-born doctors will not be welcome in the United Kingdom beyond 2025, while the health secretary announced plans to train up to 1,500 more doctors a year in a bid to make NHS England “self-sufficient” on UK doctors.