THE Chancellor’s new top adviser called for asylum seekers to be allowed to work while they wait for their claims to be processed.
Professor Brian Bell said they should be allowed to work after six months of waiting.
He also attacked the policy to end to overseas care workers bringing family members to the UK.
And recently criticised calls to stop the small boats immediately saying the Government should “chip away” at overall immigration numbers.
He made the comments in his role as chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee – the government’s top immigration adviser.
Now Rachel Reeves has appointed him as her chief economic adviser to the Treasury.
Laura Trott: ‘Labour must be upfront’
By Sophia Sleigh
RACHEL Reeves is facing calls to come clean over a £6billion special needs black hole.
The OBR watchdog has warned the shortfall in special educational needs and disabilities (Send) was unaccounted for in the Budget.
Dame Meg Hillier, Labour MP and chair of the Treasury committee, said the Chancellor should make clear her long-term plans.
She told the Guardian: “This is an obvious risk to the headroom the Chancellor created for herself at the budget.”
And shadow education secretary Laura Trott warned: “That is not money you can simply find down the back of the sofa.
“Labour must be upfront with parents and teachers about whether this will lead to cuts to schools or special educational needs provision.”
It comes after the Government this week announced it will spend £5billion to pay off council Send debts.
Government sources stressed the OBR had not accounted for future government decisions on Send expected to be announced in a White Paper.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Communities are under pressure and Channel crossings have reached record levels, the priority should be deportations but Labour are surrounding themselves with advisers who think the answer is to soften the rules and ‘chip away’ at the numbers.”
A Treasury spokesperson said: “Professor Bell’s extensive experience in economic research and policymaking, at leading financial institutions and the financial services sector will be invaluable in helping to deliver the government’s economic agenda.”
