Dear Yvette,

Im afraid your plan to curb immigration by cutting foreign care staff is doomed to catastrophic failure.

Catastrophic, because were the plan to succeed in cutting 50,000 foreign care staff posts it would plunge the care sector in to even deeper crisis.

Failure, because I doubt restricting visas for care staff will have anything but the most marginal impact on the huge demographic forces driving immigration in to the UK and the rest of wealthy west.

A few years ago my mother died in a care home where about 75% of the care workers were non Brits. And thank god they had come here. I am eternally grateful to them.

They were all outstandingly hard working and compassionate. Indeed I thought they had more empathy with the residents than the British born staff. ( Maybe something to do with their cultures and a greater regard for the elderly.)

But the point is without them that care home would not have functioned and my mother and many more elderlly residents would have endured a miserable, threadbare end to their days.

Nor do I believe there is an army of eager jobless Brits just waiting for the opportunity to become care staff. The work is incredibly hard, draining, low paid and lacking in any esteem. Im afraid you are kidding yourself if you think young Brits are going to be queuing up to work in the care sector.

The harsh truth is that we are an ageing population and we are going to need MORE not fewer foreign care workers.

I understand the pressure you feel you are under to curb immigration but this is really not the way to do it.

Best wishes,

Norman