Tory Eurosceptics have claimed that raising the national living wage next April will lead to an influx of migrants, undermining the government’s plans to cut immigration.
Members from the Vote Leave and Conservatives for Britain campaigns claim that the national living wage raise would act as a “pull factor” for migration, according to the Observer.
The national living wage is due to be introduced at £7.20 for over 25s from next April, and is estimated to rise to more than £9 by 2020.
Vote Leave, an umbrella organisation of the out campaign, shared data with the Observer showing that if a Bulgarian works the same hours in the UK than in Bulgaria, they are 377 per cent better off than at home.
Jonathan Portes, a senior fellow at the Economic and Social Research Council told the Observer that: ‘the government’s new living wage for the over-25s may actually make the UK labour market more, rather than less, attractive to some EU migrants’.
Asked if the Treasury was concerned that its living wage commitment would prove a "pull factor" for migrants, a government spokesperson insisted Britain "deserves a payrise".
"There are plenty of other countries in Europe which have a high minimum wage and the UK does not stand alone in that."
