Shortage of Workers Debate
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Lord Lilley
Main Page: Lord Lilley (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Lilley's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Shortage of Workers
Lord Lilley Excerpts(1 year, 11 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Lilley (Con)
My Lords, does the Minister accept that a general shortage of labour is a symptom of excess demand? You cannot assuage that by importing labour from abroad for the simple reason that workers not only produce but consume goods and services. The extra demand they create exactly equals the extra demand they assuage.
Noble Lords
Lord Lilley (Con)
That is why, when Tony Blair justified opening our boundaries to free labour from eastern Europe because there were 1 million vacancies, 3 million more people entered but there were still 1 million vacancies.
Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)
I wonder whether the noble Lord will allow me to read Hansard and respond to him in writing.