The Home Secretary told bosses across the UK to “invest in people in this country” instead of relying on a migrant workforce. On Wednesday, the Home Office published a paper on a new points-based immigration system, where prospective workers would require a visa, as well as a specific set of skills, to enter the UK once freedom of movement ends next year. In the published paper, workers from outside the UK would need to meet the 70-point threshold to be eligible to enter Britain.

The range of criteria includes the ability to speak English, having an approved job offer and a salary that meets the minimum requirement.

The Confederation of British Industry warned the care, construction, hospitality and food and drink firms could be most affected by the major changes.

Unison assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said the plans “spell absolute disaster for the care sector”.

Macmillan Cancer Support called for a “separate migration route” for social care workers to ensure the UK’s three million cancer patients can continue to access support.

Ms Patel has dismissed the concerns and urged businesses to invest Britons who are currently outside work.

The Home Secretary said: “It is about time businesses started to invest in people in this country.

“We have over eight million people – that is 20 percent of the workforce – aged between 16 and 64 that are economically inactive right now.

“It is down to businesses to work well with the Government and join us in investing in people, levelling up across the UK so we can have wage growth across the entire country.”

The new “Australian-style” immigration system would also give top priority to those with “the highest skills and the greatest talents”.

These include scientists, engineers and academics, who may not need a job offer to be allowed into the country.

The salary threshold for skilled migrants will be lowered to £25,600 for those coming to the UK with a job offer.

There may be concessions for those earning no less than £20,480 as long as they still meet certain requirements or their occupation is short of staff.

Fees for work visas are expected to remain largely the same at around £1,200.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in the three months to December 2019, there were just under 8.5 million people between the ages of 16 and 64 in the UK who were economically inactive.

This represented around a fifth of all people in that age bracket.

The figures also revealed more than a quarter (27 percent) of those deemed economically inactive are students.

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Economic inactivity is different from being unemployed and measures people who have not been actively seeking work within the last four weeks.

It is also define as people who are unable to start work within the next two weeks.

The overall number of economically inactive people has fallen by over one million in the past nine years, down from 9.5 million in 2011.

This morning, Labour leadership hopeful Lisa Nandy criticised the new immigration laws and accused Ms Patel of “dog-whistle politics”.

The MP for Wigan said: “Priti Patel is doing is not just that it seems very in line with the sort of dog-whistle politics that we’ve seen from the Tories in recent years – ‘we don’t like immigrants, Britain’s going to close its doors’.

“But it’s also actually about saying to people in that social care sector you’re not highly skilled, and doing nothing to put investment into that sector and into people who work in that sector.”

The Labour backbencher then insisted if she was to become Labour leader her priority would be to invest to improve the skills of Britons.

She added: “The first priority I would have would be to invest in skills in this country, I think that is the only way that immigration becomes sustainable.”

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