By Elizabeth Piper and Kylie MacLellan
MANCHESTER (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday that he will not resort to “uncontrolled immigration” to resolve the fuel, gas and food crises, suggesting such tensions are part of a post-Brexit period of adjustment.
While attending a Conservative Party conference, Johnson was again forced to defend the government against the grievances of those unable to refuel their cars, retailers warning of Christmas food shortages, and gas companies struggling amid rising prices in the wholesale.
The prime minister wanted to use the conference to turn the page after more than 18 months of Covid-19 and refocus on his 2019 electoral promises: to fight regional inequality, crime and promote social assistance.
Instead, he found himself under pressure nine months after the UK completed its exit from the European Union, a move that he said would give him freedom to adjust the economy better.
“The way forward for our country is not just to push the uncontrolled immigration button and allow large numbers of people to work… So what I won’t do is go back to the old failed model of low wages and low skills supported by runaway immigration ,” he told the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show”.
“When people voted for change in 2016 and again in 2019 as they did, they voted to end a failed model of the UK economy that depended on low wages, low skills and chronic low productivity, and we’re looking to distance ourselves from that.”
It was the closest the prime minister came to admitting that leaving the EU had contributed to tensions in supply chains and the workforce, impacting everything from fuel delivery to potential turkey shortages for Christmas.
But while the government plans to issue thousands of temporary visas to truck drivers and poultry farmers, Johnson has made it clear he will not open the door to immigration, once again shifting the responsibility of raising wages and attracting more workers to companies.
The shortage of workers after Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic created problems in sectors of the economy, interrupting fuel and medicine deliveries and leaving more than 100,000 pigs waiting due to lack of workers.
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