British students must take to the fields and pick fruit to help drive down net migration, Ukip says
The UK must "use up the human capital that exists in this country" before opening our borders, their immigration spokesperson said
BRITISH students must take to the fields and pick fruit to help drive down net migration, Ukip claimed today.
The UK must "use up the human capital that exists in this country" before opening our borders "as many people as makes sense", according to the party’s immigration spokesman.
John Bickley said fruit picking was previously a "rite of passage" to earn extra cash for people studying.
The eye-catching policy came as party chiefs insisted Ukip would survive because the PM has “no chance” getting a good Brexit deal”.
Boss Paul Nuttall warned it “isn’t going to happen” as he vowed to be the "guard dog of the Brexit we fought so hard for".
The warning came as the anti-EU party called a five year pause on unskilled and low skilled migration, and pledged “zero net immigration” at their latest election policy launch.
Shrugging off claims made by ex-boss Nigel Farage that the party could fold within two years if the PM gets a good deal with Brussels, Paul Nuttall told reporters in Westminster: “there is no chance that will happen whatsoever.”
And he claimed that Ukip’s greatest days were still to come as Mrs May would let the country down through her EU divorce negotiations.
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He said: “I am pretty confident that she will begin to backslide once these negotiations start. I am convinced that fisheries will be bartered away – probably first.”
And he warned: “I think there will certainly be movement on immigration and a lack of control of our borders, and we could still end up paying some form of divorce bill.
"Looking ahead, I am confident that Ukip will not only still survive into the future but the post Brexit Ukip, or once these negotiations start, could be bigger and actually I predict will be bigger than the pre-Brexit Ukip ever was”, he added.
And Mr Nuttall rejected suggestions Ukip had become a “parody party” after boasts they were the "most successful party in the world" from senior party officials.
He argued Ukip had indeed been the "most influential of the 20th century" despite having zero MPs and getting wiped out at the local elections last week.
And batting away worries about his own leadership, Mr Nuttall declared that he was the leader “for now” and said questions about his future were “facetious”.
Ukip wants to establish a migration control commission to reduce the numbers of people arriving in the UK from 600,000 to around 300,000 a year in order to meet the target of zero net migration.
Six-month visas would be offered to non-Britons seeking seasonal work in the UK agriculture industry under the proposal.
Mr Bickley said: "The number of such visas would be progressively reduced over time by the migration council as other measures are taken across the welfare and education system to increase the availability of home-grown labour."
Questioned about the policy, he also said: "I don't think we're very productive in this country during the winter months when there's snow on the ground or there's frost.
"So they need to be here when the work is available and that's during the summer months. So we issue a six-month visa.
"We also want to encourage our own people to get back into that industry.
"There used to be a time when it was a rite of passage that people going through, if you like, an internal gap year in this country or on their way to university or at university, that to get some extra cash in, guess what they'd do, they'd go fruit picking."