London, Oct 6 (UNI) Foreign nationals are grabbing more than 50 per cent of new jobs in Britain, a data compiled by the House of Commons library, using European Labour Force Survey revealed.

Between 1997 and 2006, 862,000 jobs (54 per cent of all new jobs) were taken by foreigners while Britons could bag only 731,000 jobs.

Besides, the number of British nationals in the workforce went up by only 2.8 per cent as against a rise of 90 per cent in the number of foreigners.

The figures have placed the country at the bottom of a European league of countries for getting jobs for their own citizens.

Out of 12 EU countries, Britain was ranked 11th followed by the Czech Republic. A league table presenting the increase of nationals in the workforce, showed that the countries like Spain, France and Germany had better record in comparison to Britain.

''Britain's place in the table is due to its migration policies and the issuing of work permits. Gordon Brown's boast of British jobs for British workers is substantially hollow,'' the Telegraph newspaper quoted Tory MP James Clappison, who obtained the data, as saying.

UNI