Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr on the first day of the Conservative Party conference, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wouldn’t fall back on “uncontrolled migration” to respond to supply chain disruptions, adding there would be a “period of adjustment.”
Johnson went on to insist that waiting in line for petrol and the culling of pigs was a necessary transition for Britain to emerge from a broken economic model based on low wages, reiterating that his plan for a higher wage, higher skilled economy would offer a long-term solution, reports the BBC.
The Prime Minister’s comments came as Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, insisted it was the role of business, not ministers, to sort out such problems, reports The Guardian.
“I don’t believe in a command-and-control economy, so I don’t believe the prime minister is responsible for what’s in the shops,” Truss told a conference fringe event. “This is why we have a free enterprise economy.”
During the interview, Johnson continued to defend his policies, according to Politico, pointing out, “What we can’t do … in all these sectors, is simply go back to the tired, failed old model, reach for the lever called ‘uncontrolled immigration’, get people in at low wages. And yes, there will be a period of adjustment, but that is, I think, what we need to see in this country.”
period of adjustment, but that is, I think, what we need to see in this country.”
Asked whether labor shortages and the associated disruptio
Asked whether labor shortages and the associated disruption they caused were an inevitable part of his Brexit policy, Johnson did not disagree.
He said: “When people voted for change in 2016, and when people voted for change in 2019, they voted for the end of a broken model of the UK economy that relied on low wages and low skill, and chronic low productivity. And we’re moving away from that.”
Johnson would not say if supply issues would affect Christmas, but in a pre-conference TV interview, Johnson acknowledged that disruption to some supplies could continue until Christmas.
As for the possibility of raising taxes – with just three weeks before Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces his annual Budget, Johnson refused to rule out raising taxes again. He said he was a “zealous opponent of unnecessary tax rises”, but warned the pandemic had hit the UK’s economy like a “fiscal meteorite.”