Reform council leader urges Labour to reconsider visa tightening for care workers

The leader of a Reform-run county council has written to the government to express “grave concern” about a planned tightening of visas for health and care workers, despite the party’s wider commitment to significantly reducing net migration.

Linden Kemkaran – the leader of Kent council, which is one of 10 authorities in England run by Nigel Farage’s party since May – said the changes, including an imminent end to the specific visa route for care workers, could have a significant impact on local care homes.

Kemkaran and Diane Morton, the council’s cabinet member for social care, said the changes risked seeing an exodus of overseas care staff, as they highlighted the impact on the sector of a rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) in the budget.

In a letter to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, and Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, they said that about 20% to 25% of the county’s social care workforce was from overseas and able to work via licensed sponsorships from employers.

This route expires on 22 July, part of a wider tightening of migration rules, including on health and care visas, announced by the government in May. The Reform councillors’ letter warned about the impact on “a number of displaced social care workers who may have lost their jobs, or the sponsoring provider has lost their licence”.

When care workers’ existing visas expire, they wrote, to keep a visa they would need to earn at least £41,000 a year, the new minimum salary for skilled worker visas. Added to the NICs rise, “this is totally unsustainable, and the risk is that many care workers at this level will go home and leave providers on a cliff edge”, the letter said.

They added: “Due to the challenges facing the adult social care system in general, and care providers in particular, we urge you to reconsider these changes and look forward to your support in addressing these urgent pressing matters.”

While Reform does not have a definitive national position on this issue, the general approach set out by Farage and his fellow MPs has been to push repeatedly for a significant fall in overall migration and curbs to work visas.

In May, Farage said care staff were not skilled and overseas care workers should only be allowed in on strictly time-limited visas. More widely, he has called for zero net migration, meaning there can be no more arrivals than departures.

Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, has said Britons should do care work rather than what he termed “a never-ending stream of cheap, low-skilled labour from overseas”.

Reform UK and the Home Office were contacted for comment.