James O'Brien reacts as Brexiteer Tory peer calls for more overseas workers

10 November 2022, 12:30 | Updated: 10 November 2022, 16:18

James O'Brien dissects comments from Brexit-backing Conservative peer and Next boss, Lord Wolfson, who is calling for more overseas workers to come to the UK.

Lord Wolfson said in an interview that the UK's current immigration policy was crippling economic growth.

The strong advocate for Brexit is now urging the Government to let foreign workers into the UK to ease labour shortages.

James branded it as "breath-taking" after the peer said, "We have to take a different approach to economically productive migration."

James responded: "We did mate. It was called freedom of movement of people throughout the largest single market on the planet. That was the approach we had, that was the approach you rejected.

"We've literally imposed trading restrictions on ourselves as a consequence of the Brexit you supported, Lord Wolfson."

James wondered whether Lord Wolfson even attended any pro-Brexit meetings after the Next boss urged the Government to decide whether or not it wanted to become a "fortress Britain", pulling up a drawbridge to foreign workers.

"Of course they wanted to be fortress Britain," said James, "they didn't realise what it would mean but they literally boasted about it."

He continued: "Thank you to Jim in Oxford for reminding us of the Leopards Eating Peoples' Faces Party, which Lord Wolfson appears to be a fully paid up member of.

"'I didn't think leopards would eat my face', says the man who's voted for the Leopards Eating Peoples' Faces Party.

"'I didn't think Brexit would be like this', says the man who's a prominent supporter of Brexit, and now can't find the staff to work in the shops that he needs in order to provide the sort of profits that would drive the sort of economic growth that this country is now crying out for."

James continued reading Lord Wolfson's comments: "I think in respect of immigration, it's definitely not the Brexit that I wanted, or indeed, many of people who voted Brexit wanted."

James described him as "one of the only businesspeople you could find who could offer up support for Brexit, when people like Michael Gove were dancing around the place claiming we'd had enough of experts and Nigel Farage was whipping up vile racist hatred of anybody who couldn't trace their family back to the Domesday Book."

He facetiously continued that "everybody knew exactly what they were voting for except a Conservative peer who was a prominent business backer of Brexit."