British Home Secretary James Cleverly announced a five-point plan Monday to further curb what he described as “immigration abuses” that will deliver the “biggest ever reduction in net migration.”
“Migration to this country is far too high and needs to come down,” Cleverly said during his statement in parliament.
Citing recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), he recalled that a provisional estimate of net migration for the year ending June 2023 is 672,000, which is lower than the ONS estimate for net migration for the year ending December 2022.
Cleverly noted, however, that it is “still far too high.”
Defining the government’s new five-point plan to curb immigration, he said they are taking “more robust action than any other government before” in order to bring this down.
“Our new immigration plan will mean we decisively cut net migration and create a system that works for the British people,” he said.
Cleverly underlined that this package plus a reduction in the number of foreign graduate students who will be allowed to bring family members to the UK will mean around 300,000 fewer people who come in future years than have come to the UK last year.
– UK will stop overseas care workers from bringing family dependents
Early this year, the government announced that starting in January 2024, international students will be banned from bringing family members with them to the UK unless they are on a postgraduate research program.
According to the new plan, the UK will also stop overseas care workers from bringing family dependents and require care firms in England to be registered with the Care Quality Commission to sponsor visas.
In addition, the government will increase the earnings threshold by a third to £38,700 ($48,891) from next spring for those using the skilled worker route, in line with the median full-time wage for these kinds of jobs.
Cleverly also said they will scrap “cut-price” labor from overseas by stopping shortage occupations being able to pay 20% less than the going rate.
He added that they will more than double the minimum income for family visas to £38,700, which is the same threshold as the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers.
Cleverly also reiterated that they will tighten the rules on students bringing family members to the UK and the Migration Advisory Committee will also review the graduate route.
– ‘Admission of years of total failure’
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper criticized Cleverly’s statement, saying the Conservative government has “no serious plan” for the country.
“Today’s statement is an admission of years of total failure by this Conservative government, failure on the immigration system and failure on the economy,” she noted.
Pressing the home secretary, Cooper added that this is another example of the “total chaos at the heart of this government.”
She said migration has trebled since the Conservative party promised to reduce it and trebled as a result of their policies on the economy.
“Migration should come down,” said Cooper, expressing that there is a need for a proper plan with clear links between the immigration system, training, the economy and workforce plans.
“None of which are included in the statement today, because they have no grip, no proper plan. This is a chaotic approach.”
Saying that immigration is important for Britain and rightly they have helped Ukraine and Hong Kong, she added that this is why the immigration system needs to be controlled and managed “so that it is fair and effective.”
“The Conservatives are in chaos. They’ve got no serious plan for the economy, no serious plan for the immigration system, no serious plan for the country. Britain deserves better than this.”