BIRMINGHAM — Theresa May’s Conservatives are facing a growing backlash from business and within their own party over controversial proposals to force companies to disclose how many of their employees are foreigners.
The leader of the party in Scotland, Ruth Davidson, said it was not something she would have proposed, and made a pointed appeal during her speech to the Conservative conference Wednesday for the party not to forget “the people, homes and families” behind the immigration debate.
The proposals, set out Tuesday by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, met with immediate resistance from business representatives including the British Chambers of Commerce, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, and the Institute of Directors. Peter Cheese, chief executive of the CIPD, called the plan “divisive,” warning it would “demonize” companies that employed migrants.
Rudd told the BBC Wednesday morning that the proposals were not something the government was “definitely” going to do.
Neil Carmichael, the Tory chair of parliament’s education subcommittee, speaking on behalf of the pro-EU Open Britain campaign, said: “This unsettling policy would drive people, business and compassion out of British society and should not be pursued any further.”
Opposition politicians joined the backlash. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the plan would “foster division and discrimination in our workplaces,” while the leaders of the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party issued a rare joint statement, accusing the Conservatives of deploying “the most toxic rhetoric on immigration we have seen from any government in living memory.”