By MARTIN BECKFORD, POLICY EDITOR
Published: | Updated:
Only one in five staff jobs created over the past decade has gone to a Briton, it has been revealed.
A new report has found that of the 3.7million extra payrolled roles since 2014, just 734,000 were taken by UK nationals.
EU citizens accounted for 408,000 while the vast majority – 2.5million positions – went to migrants from the rest of the world, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) said.
The think-tank’s analysis showed that most of the rise took place after the pandemic, with the non-EU employment counts up by 2.1million since 2020.
It warned that while employers have gained ‘unprecedented access to overseas labour’, taxpayers have been forced to absorb the cost of millions of Britons being ‘written off’ and left on benefits.
The findings come just days after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood admitted she is constantly being lobbied by her fellow Labour ministers to let more foreign workers into the country.
The Daily Mail also told how Whitehall departments have spent at least £5million on more than 1,500 visas for migrant staff since the election.
CSJ founder and former Cabinet minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘The report shows that this crisis extends beyond the benefit system.
'The truth is that successive governments have used welfare over decades to compensate parts of the country for economic failure rather than creating the conditions for prosperity.
‘Compounding this, ministers have repeatedly pulled the easy lever of immigration rather than providing a better deal for left behind communities. Welfare reform, immigration and regional growth must now be treated as parts of the same challenge.’
Migrant workers and trade union leaders campaigning against proposed immigration restrictions at Labour conference in Liverpool last month
Its analysis of HMRC figures found that the number of British nationals in payrolled jobs fell in many regions between July 2014 and December 2025, down 53,000 in Scotland and 32,000 in the West Midlands.
Over the same period, jobs for migrant workers from outside of the EU increased by 465,200 in London alone, with an extra 284,500 in the South East.
Health and social work accounted for 29 per cent of the increase in migrant workers from outside of the EU on payrolls, followed by admin and support services (16 per cent) and accommodation and food services (12 per cent).
Reform UK’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice said: ‘This report is a damning indictment of Labour and Conservative governments have chosen an open-borders, low-wage economic model that writes off millions of our own people. Reform UK will end the welfare trap, halt mass immigration and get British workers back into jobs.’
In order to stop the large numbers of migrants who arrived in recent years – dubbed the Boriswave – settling here permanently, the Home Secretary last year announced tough plans to make them wait for longer before they are entitled to claim Indefinite Leave to Remain.
But after a backlash from the Labour left and trade unions, Ms Mahmood signalled at her party’s conference that she will soon water down her proposals.
She said last month: ‘I know that, throughout our consultation process, some have said elements of these reforms are not fair. To that: let me say this. We will come to a position that balances fairness for those who came here legally, and fairness to British citizens across this country.’