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Labour in foreign staff row

Labour's immigration spokesman has modified planned criticism of Tesco and Next over claims they preferred eastern European workers after a preview of his speech drew a furious response from the firms. Tesco said it "absolutely refutes" the claim.

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Bryant criticises 'unscrupulous employers'

Delivering his speech to the IPPR centre-left think-tank in London, Mr Bryant said unscrupulous employers were taking advantage of EU working rules to recruit foreign workers and pay them less than minimum wage:

Unscrupulous employers should not be allowed to recruit workers in large numbers in low-wage countries in the EU, bring them to the UK, charge the costs of their travel and their sub-standard accommodation against their wages and still not even meet the national minimum wage.

That is unfair. It exploits migrant workers and it makes it impossible for settled workers with mortgages and a family to support at British prices to compete.

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