There are currently around 130,000 vacancies in the social care sector, a higher proportion of unfilled roles than anywhere else in the labour market. According to the industry body Skills for Care, an ageing population means that 540,000 new care workers will be needed by 2040. Finding them, in a sector where employees have historically been grossly underpaid and undervalued, will be one of the challenges of the next decade.

Against that disconcerting backdrop, curtailing the practice of hiring care workers from overseas would seem to be – to put it mildly – counterintuitive policymaking. But that is what the government has chosen to do, despite opposition from both Care England and Unison, the biggest union representing health and care workers. On Tuesday, as part of Labour’s broader drive to significantly reduce legal migration, the special visa route that allowed international staff to ease a dire recruitment crisis was closed down. Care workers already here on a sponsorship visa will have to stay for 10 years rather than five to win indefinite leave to remain.

Justifying the decision, Labour has pointed to evidence of

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