10 October 2016

There "seems as if there's a darkness at the heart of Theresa May's government"; policies on migrant workers go "too far".

These are the words of a leading Tory Party Adviser and a UKIP MEP respectively.

Former adviser to David Cameron Steve Hilton was criticising Home Secretary Amber Rudd's proposal for employers to publically declare how many foreign workers they employ in an article for the Sunday Times.

"Think how you felt when you heard Donald Trump suggest that Muslims should be banned from entering America," he said. "This is worse."

He said that with these "divisive, repugnant, and insanely bureaucratic" proposals, ministers may as well announce that "foreign workers will be tattooed with numbers on their forearms".

UKIP MEP Roger Helmer seemed to agree, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he thought the policies were "a step too far" and "petty".

Following widespread criticism of the astonishing announcement, the Conservative Party was forced to do a u-turn on the policy yesterday.