The Lords have been told that there is no need to guarantee employers permanent access to a large pool of low-skilled foreign labour after Brexit, as investment and higher wages can make the country “self-sufficient” in workers. “We have 1.5 million unemployed, and one million part-time looking for full-time work,” the former diplomat and chairman of Migration Watch, Lord Andrew Green, has told the Lords Economic Select Committee. “It’s not as if the barrel is empty.” Lord Green emphasised that “strong public demand to reduce immigration” made achieving a substantial reduction a democratic imperative. The present government remains committed to a target of bringing net immigration down “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands” which was first set in 2010 but has been missed by a wide margin every year. “I would say that even 100,000 [migrants] a year would add about nine million to our population over the next twenty-five years”, Green noted, suggesting that controlling population growth, reducing strain on public services and encouraging community cohesion should be the government’s policy focus. Also providing evidence at the hearing was Philippe Legrain, a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics European Institute and an adviser to former