Hartlepool Labour parliamentary candidate Jonathan Brash outlines 'what I will fight for as our town’s MP'

“We’ll get immigration down to the tens of thousands,” promised successive Conservative Governments.

“Yet, last month’s net migration figures, a record breaking 606,000, illustrate just how hollow and broken those promises have become.

“And they have no new ideas either.

“Just more of the same tired tough talk, more of the same failed crackdowns, another new piece of legislation they know won’t work... We’ve heard it all before.

“They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

“By that metric the Conservatives lost their minds years ago because they always refuse to do the one thing that would bring immigration down.

“Back British workers.

“Identifying the skills we need and then investing in our homegrown talent to build a workforce that meets the challenges of the 21st Century is the only solution.

“Stop importing and start innovating.

“The Conservative Government has done the exact opposite.

“Take three revealing examples:

“They’ve allowed employers to pay an immigrant worker 20% less than a British one.

“Undercutting our workforce and incentivising employers to recruit from abroad.

“They’ve offered £10,000 bonuses to overseas teachers to come to the UK after underinvesting in teacher training in the UK for more than a decade.

“They’ve added bricklayers to their points based system of workers allowed to come to the UK because budget cuts in further education mean we are not training enough here.

“This is madness.

“Even when a good idea comes along, like the new Hartlepool Health and Social Care Academy, designed to train a new generation of care workers, they invest less in it than they gave Jomast to redevelop the Wesley.

“The Conservatives have failed. The figures prove it. It’s time for change.

“Labour will deliver a completely new approach that would bring immigration down.

“First, Labour will end the undercutting of British workers by scrapping the rule under which overseas staff brought into the UK could be paid up to 20% less than the equivalent domestic wage.

“Second, we will reform the apprenticeship levy, which has seen £3 billion go unspent since 2019, to ensure British workers are getting the skills they need.

“Third, we will implement a proper workforce plan for the NHS, paid for by ending non-dom tax dodging.

“This will double the number of medical school places, double the number of district nurses, train 5,000 new health visitors and create 10,000 more nursing and midwifery clinical placements.

“Fourth, Labour will have a proper industrial strategy backed up with £28 billion of capital investment each year for new technologies like wind, solar, hydrogen and the new nuclear I want to see in Hartlepool.

“We will bring industry back to our country and with it jobs for our country.

“Creating a Britain that is energy independent not only makes us richer, but more secure in an ever more volatile world.

“Finally, we will back our brilliant schools and colleges to ensure they have the resources they need to prepare our young people for the future.

“We need a high growth, high wage economy. We can deliver it with a positive vision for change that backs the ingenuity and skill of the British people.

“This is Labour’s mission and what I will fight for as our town’s MP.”