Former Environment Minister George Eustice has called on the British government to negotiate a new reciprocal visa arrangement with the EU for workers under the age of 35. This could address the current labour shortages in key sectors such as food and beverage.
Eustice stated that the current skill-based immigration “does not align with the needs of our economy,” citing labour shortages in the food sector that he believes “contribute to inflation.”
“My proposal is to initiate bilateral negotiations with EU member states, starting with countries like Bulgaria, Romania, and the Baltic states, and eventually expanding to the entire EU, to establish a reciprocal visa scheme for youth mobility,” he said.
A shortage of migrant workers in the food sector is a concern, especially for seasonal activities such as fruit picking. While Home Secretary Suella Braverman said there was “no good reason” why the UK couldn’t train its own fruit pickers to reduce reliance on migrant workers, the British Retail Consortium attributed a “worsening of labor shortages” in the agricultural sector to Brexit.
