Brexit cold turkey: UK tries to kick 25-year imported labour habit

FILE PHOTO: A sign informing customers that fuel has run out is pictured at a Esso fuel station in London, Britain, October 4, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom's 25-year-old model of importing cheap labour has been up-ended by Brexit and COVID-19, sowing the seeds for a 1970s-style winter of discontent complete with worker shortages, spiralling wage demands and price rises.

Leaving the European Union, followed by the chaos of the biggest public health crisis in a century, has plunged the world's fifth-largest economy into a sudden attempt to kick its addiction to cheap imported labour.