Labour's shadow immigration minister has suggested companies should take responsibility for giving jobs to people from the UK.
In an updated echo of Gordon Brown's 'British jobs for British people' Chris Bryant said industry should do more to ensure workers from the UK take jobs in hospitality, construction and agriculture.
Speaking at a fringe event hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group On Migration at the Labour Party conference and chaired by The Huffington Post UK in Manchester on Monday, Bryant said: "Sometimes people's concerns about migration are really concerns about jobs for themselves.
"In particular I think there are three industries, the hospitality industry, the construction industry and agriculture who have done remarkably little to make sure there are British people able to come in [and work in] those industries.
"Why is it that you go to a hotel in France and you're welcomed by a French person, that's delightful.
"You've actually got to invest in skills and training and make sure you've got the balance and work force that is going to take on those jobs."
Speaking to HuffPost UK after the event, Bryant said Labour's immigration policy couldn't be defined in a "nutshell".
"It's not in a nutshell. You can't do it in a nutshell and I don't want to do any of it in a nutshell. In the end there's about 30 different issues that impact upon immigration."
Bryant also denied there was any friction at the top of the Labour party in creating immigration policy but admitted the party had "made some mistakes".
"Although some people who talk about immigration and think it's the most important thing in this country are racist, just because you're interested in immigration doesn't make you a racist. Many people in this country I've spoken to in the black and ethnic minority communities worry about migration," he said.
"I've had a lot of Asian women say to me they don't like the men in their community going to the Indian subcontinent to find a bride who is not as British as them."