HOME Secretary Amber Rudd faces a humiliating climb-down over a flagship policy on foreign workers as party colleagues criticised the plans.

The Hastings and Rye MP's proposals compelling companies to publish the number of international staff they employed has been widely condemned since their announcement last week.

And within days the policy seems to be unravelling with cabinet colleague Justine Greening telling broadcasters there would be no "naming or shaming" of companies.

Critics of the scheme have welcomed the apparent government u-turn but have also raised concerns that the policy may be continued in a less open and public manner.

Mrs Rudd came under fire after hinting at the proposals in her conference speech on Tuesday and denied claims the policy was "xenophobic".

Businesses were quick to criticise the plans including St Leonard-s furniture manufacturing MD Matt O'Flynn who said the Sussex MP was wrong to criticise his firm as employers who recruited largely from Romania and Poland at the expense of local people.

He pointed out that 75 per cent of his staff are from the UK.

The criticism has grown in recent days with Brighton's Steve Hilton, former senior advisor to David Cameron, calling the proposals "divisive, repugnant, and insanely bureaucratic" - a view backed up by former education secretary Nicky Morgan.

Mrs Morgan told Sky News she was "surprised" by the proposal saying it did not represent the Amber Rudd that she knew.

In a move to try and quell the criticism, cabinet members have played down the significance and impact of the proposals over the weekend.

Defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon and education secretary Justine Greening insisted the information was aimed at improving Government investment in skills training, and said it would never be made public or used for "naming and shaming".

Ms Greening told ITV: "This is not data that will be published. There will be absolutely no naming and shaming.

"This is about informing policy, so that we understand particularly which areas and parts of the country there are skills shortages, evidenced by the fact employers are not taking local workers as much as they might do.

"It enables us to tailor policy in those areas so that we can respond to that and make sure that people can take advantage of the opportunities economically in their area."

Sir Michael added the plans were only a small shift in policy compared to the information companies already gather when employing workers from overseas.

But even those proposals have been criticised with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saying the fact that the lists would be secret rather than public did not make them acceptable.