As the UK wriggles its way out of Europe, it’s considering two moves that will affect the Australian work force.

Tougher rules have been flagged for employers wanting to hire foreign workers … at the same time as restrictions are planned for British doctors who want to work abroad.

At the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt pledged that the NHS will be “self sufficient” in doctors after Britain leaves the European Union.

Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, on day three of the Conservative Party conference. Photo: Isabel Infantes/ EMPICS

He has promised training funds for an extra 1,500 medical students a year, after releasing figures that show one in four NHS doctors have been trained abroad.

However in an attempt to stop the exodus of medical workers fleeing to countries such as Australia, trainee doctors will have to work in the UK for four years before they can accept postings abroad – a move many are now eyeing as the country’s protracted junior doctor’s strike drags on.

The move has already been criticised as “arrogant and racist”.

NHS Doctor Azeem Majeed asked, “In the cosmopolitan world of 2016 does a political party really think it can force doctors IN and OUT of a country?”

A quarter of the NHS is made up of foreign workers – and if we lose them, we lose our national health system. https://t.co/ZL85PiHilr

— Professor Azeem Majeed (@Azeem_Majeed) October 4, 2016

So now even doctors who care for us & save lives aren't welcome in UK. Their crime: being foreign. Shameful & reckless #ImmigrantsWelcome https://t.co/UxtXq1VyAS

— Philippe Legrain 🇺🇦 (@plegrain) October 4, 2016

After UK doctors failed, it was a "foreign" doctor who found a tumour + saved my life 10 yrs ago. We need GOOD doctors wherever they're from

— Patrick Strudwick (@PatrickStrud) October 4, 2016

Tough new rules for foreign workers

A new drive to cut immigration has also been flagged, by interior minister Amber Rudd.

Rudd told the Conservative Party conference that while she still wanted to attract the “brightest and the best” to the country, she wanted to incentivise employers to train and hire local workers too.

“It’s only by reducing the numbers back down to sustainable levels that we can change the tide of public opinion so once again immigration is something we can all welcome,” she said.

Employers may have to outline steps they have taken to foster a pool of local workers, and publish what proportion of their workforce is international.

The test companies must take before recruiting from abroad may be tightened to ensure people moving to Britain to fill gaps in the labour market were “not taking jobs British people could do”.

The government said it would also examine whether it needed to tighten student immigration rules.