Storm brews over Tory immigration cap

The conservatives will create job opportunities for disabled people by placing limits on economic migrants entering the UK, according to the shadow minister for disabled people.

In a blog on the Conservative Party website, Mark Harper accused Labour of coming to power in 1997 with little consideration of how to convert its rhetoric into “solid policies” to benefit disabled people.

Setting out his own policy for supporting more disabled people into work, Mr Harper said: “We will unlock many more opportunities for disabled people to move into work by placing caps on the numbers of economic migrants moving into the UK, and incentivise and encourage businesses to take on disabled people.”

Mr Harper’s blog post also said that he wanted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to become an “exemplar employer of disabled people” for the rest of government and the wider business world.

But Mr Harper’s comments linking immigration with restrictions to job opportunities for disabled people have been condemned by disabled people.

David Blunkett, a former home secretary who was also work and pensions secretary, said that Mr Harper’s proposals represented a “sad piece of opportunism” which seeks to exploit the genuine need for action to get many more disabled people into employment.

Mr Blunkett added: “Immigration, as acknowledged by all economists, was a crucial driving force for economic growth, which, as a result of the increased economic activity in the developed world's most successful economy until the global financial crisis hit us last year, created and didn't simply fill jobs.”

Mr Blunkett added that there are not any economic migrants taking jobs in the DWP, which illustrated what he called the “nonsense of this crude attempt to link migration with unemployment”.

He added: “Getting more disabled people into jobs in government is a laudable aim – but not by appealing to crude xenophobia.”

Paul Treloar, of Disability Alliance, said that he did not think that pitting one group of jobseekers against another was a progressive policy to improve disabled peoples’ employment prospects.

He said: “The barriers that many disabled people face in securing, or staying in, employment are myriad and require much more in-depth attention than simply looking at capping numbers of economic migrants.”

He described Mr Harper’s analysis of creating employment opportunities as “naïve” and potentially inflammatory.

Shortly before Disability Now went to press a spokesman for Mark Harper said that the shadow minister was unable to comment on reactions to his original blog post.