UKIP’S new Welsh MEP Nathan Gill is facing criticism after confirming he employed “dozens” of east European and Filipino workers in a care company. Mr Gill was a director of a number of family businesses that provided care services to Hull City Council.

Labour MP Peter Hain accused him of “bare-faced hypocrisy” and called on him to apologise. But Mr Gill insisted: “UKIP has never said it wants to stop all immigration – it wants to limit the numbers.” He said people from overseas were employed “because we could not find workers to do the jobs”.

“The workers were paid more than the minimum wage, but not massively more. “The amount we could afford to pay was determined by the amount of money we received from the council. “Working in care is quite tough and we had a big turnover of staff.” He said the workers came from new EU countries such as Poland and others were from the Philippines. So basically employing cheap labour to reduce the wage bill and increase company profits.

Andrew Nutt Heolddu Road, Bargoed