The Tory idea to make firms list their foreign workers is worse than Donald Trump's plan to ban Muslims from entering the US, David Cameron's former policy guru has warned.
Steve Hilton, who broke with the ex-PM to back Brexit, was scathing about Home Secretary Amber Rudd's suggestion, which provoked uproar after being trailed at the Conservative conference this week.
Ministers might as well announce that "foreign workers will be tattooed with numbers on their forearms," Mr Hilton wrote in the Sunday Times.
The former head of policy at No 10 warned that forcing companies to reveal all their foreign workers would be "divisive, repugnant, and insanely bureaucratic".
Ms Rudd told people not to brand her a "racist" after the idea was widely condemned, with Labour calling it xenophobic.
The initiative was also attacked by Ukip MEP Roger Helmer, who said: "This idea that companies should provide lists of foreigners - if we had suggested that, if Ukip had suggested that, they would have been shouting 'Fascist' up and down the street. I personally think that is a step too far."
Mr Hilton also accused Prime Minister Theresa May of being "incompetent and irresponsible" for allowing the international community to think Brexit would cut UK off from rest of the world.