(Bloomberg) -- Next Plc (LON:NXT) boss Simon Wolfson urged the government to allow more foreign workers into Britain as he said the country’s current direction was “not the Brexit I wanted.”
Wolfson was a vocal supporter of Britain voting to leave the European Union in 2016, but during an interview Thursday with the BBC he said the economy was suffering from a labor shortage.
“We have got people queuing up to come to this country to pick crops that are rotting in fields, to work in warehouses that otherwise wouldn’t be operable, and we’re not letting them in,” he said.
“We have to take a different approach to economically productive migration.”
Asked about the UK’s economic troubles since quitting the EU, with rising taxes and lower trade, he said, “In respect of immigration it’s definitely not the Brexit I wanted.”
Wolfson said most people in Britain have a pragmatic view of immigration and are not opposed to more foreign workers.
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