The government's new immigration cap on workers from outside the EU has been criticised by one expert lawyer.

Philip Trott, partner at Bates, Wells & Braithwaite, suggested the move was simply a vote-gathering exercise which will "appease headline writers".

He said that nobody was going to benefit from the new caps and that businesses will "recruit people to fill a gap and they may not be the most appropriate person for the job".

In addition, the cap could redirect highly skilled workers to places where they can easily get a visa.

This could mean that employers will hire more highly skilled contractors rather than taking on permanent staff who may not have the expertise needed.

The Home Office is planning to tighten the number of skilled non-EU workers businesses can employ and introducing an annual limit of 21,700 of those coming into the country under the skilled and highly skilled routes.