Britons should take up the fruit picking and farm labouring jobs currently done by European Union (EU) migrants, a Cabinet minister has suggested.
Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom said she hoped more youngsters could be encouraged to “engage with countryside matters” and take up jobs and careers in food production.
She also insisted there would be no “bonfire” of environmental legislation when the UK left the EU, although some measures could be “significantly“ rewritten.
At a Conservative Party conference fringe event in Birmingham she was challenged about the impact immigration curbs would have on the food and farming sector, which depends heavily on migrant labour.
She said: “There are two sorts of employee who have migrated to this country. One are permanent employees who have come here from the EU or from elsewhere in the world.
“As has been made very clear, it is not Theresa May’s intention to deport anyone unless our European colleagues announce their intention to do likewise.
“So, she is absolutely intending that those people who come here and do a great job in our food and farming sector continue to do that.
“The other side of it is the seasonal workers. Of course, before we joined the EU we had a very good programme of seasonal workers’ licences and it is not beyond the wit of man to have such a thing in future.”
Asked if it was possible for Britons could do the jobs instead, she said:
“Of course it is, that is a whole different issue.”
She added: “We could get British people doing those jobs and that tempts me to stray into the whole issue of why wages aren’t higher and so on.
“My absolute hope is that with more apprenticeships, with more young people being encouraged to engage with countryside matters, that actually the concept of a career in food production is going to be much more appealing going forward.”
Some Brexit campaigners had expressed hopes that EU environmental laws, which have been blamed for making it harder to build homes, could be scrapped.
Mrs Leadsom said: “There is a lot of EU legislation that over the last 40 years we would have undoubtedly have introduced ourselves.
“I don’t for one minute accept that the only reason we are cleaning up our beaches is because the EU made us.
“How ridiculous is that? It’s because we really like clean beaches in this country and we want to swim in the sea.
“So it’s obviously not the case that we will want to have a massive bonfire.”
Leaving the EU would, however, give a “huge opportunity to adjust things to make them much more focused on the UK”.
“There are some things in the body of EU legislation that works for 28 member states but doesn’t actually work for the UK.”
She added: “There are certain things that you would want to change and also potentially directives that you would change quite significantly but a lot of it I’m sure we would want to keep.”
