Industries addicted to cheap migrant labour have made staff shortages even worse and fuelled an "ever greater reliance" on foreign workers, the Home Office has concluded.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper wants companies to stop relying on the immigration system to plug gaps in their workforces and boost pay, conditions and training for domestic workers.

Ms Cooper, using the social care sector as an example, said care home bosses should recruit from the pool of 40,000 workers who moved to the UK on a care visa only to discover their job didn't exist, rather than demanding the ability to recruit more migrants.

Some industry chiefs are warning of crises, with nursing leaders warning of an "exodus" and concern in the university and construction sectors.

But Home Office analysts believe the sectors themselves are responsible for domestic shortages.

The Immigration White Paper, published on Monday, revealed: "It has led to over recruitment from abroad and under training in the UK.

"And it has left UK growth too often reliant upon short-term, immigration-driven increases in the size of the labour market, rather than on sustained increases in productivity and growth per capita through investment in skills and innovation here at home.

"UK immigration policy during the last Parliament allowed employers to freely recruit from abroad, education institutions to pursue expansion of overseas students without proper checks in place and encouraged the NHS and care organisations to bring in staff from abroad from countries with recruitment demands of their own, all of which have contributed to record high and uncontrolled net migration levels.

"Employers were encouraged to recruit from overseas in shortage occupations with the introduction of a 20% wage discount below the going rate when recruiting for jobs on the shortage occupation list, even though reducing pay levels and undercutting in shortage sectors was likely to make UK recruitment even harder, make the shortages even worse, and lead to ever greater reliance on overseas labour."

I don't think that we can just continually return to immigration as being the answer to every part of the labour market where there are problems, instead of actually dealing with those problems."

Sir Keir unveiled plans to ramp up deportations by increasing the number of offenders eligible for removals, overhaul how Article 8 of the ECHR is used in immigration cases, scrap the social care visa route, require foreign workers to take graduate level jobs and boost English language skills.

Firms that want to hire from abroad must also demonstrate how they are training domestic workers for roles.

The Home Office has predicted its changes will lead to 100,000 fewer people coming to the UK, meaning net migration could settle at around 240,000-250,000 by the end of this Parliament in 2029.

But a union boss on Tuesday warned thousands of migrant nursing staff are ready to leave the UK, with new Government measures aimed at curbing immigration set to accelerate the "exodus".

The Royal College of Nursing said forcing migrants to wait longer to gain indefinite leave to remain is "the hostile environment on steroids".

RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger warned that thousands of nursing staff are readying to leave the UK.

She said: "This situation is bad enough, but now the Government's cruel measures could accelerate this exodus, doing great damage to key services.

"Closing the care worker visa route and making migrant nursing staff wait longer to access vital benefits is the hostile environment on steroids.

"They pay tax and work in our vital services, they deserve the same rights.

"Sadly, this Government is intent on pushing people into poverty, away from the country, and with no credible plan to grow the domestic workforce in sight.

"Government must do all it can to get the next generation into nursing.

"Rather than pandering and scapegoating, ministers should focus on what patients and vulnerable people need - safely staffed services."

University leaders have also warned a tax on foreign students will push more institutions into the red.

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said a veterinary medicine costs a university about £20,000 per student.

She said: "We'd like the government to explain to us how it will make it easier for us to provide opportunities for UK students to do those high-cost subjects if they're taking some of that cost."

"Following years of frozen fees, inadequate research funding and a rapid downturn in international students, the current operating environment is very challenging. An additional great big fat tax isn't going to help any university.

"We want them to think again. We are already doing everything we can to balance the budget. Taxing us again isn't going to help."