Britain announces stricter visa norms to reduce migration
Rishi Sunak’s government raised the salary requirement for people applying to live in the UK, one of a series of measures designed to show voters his ruling Conservative Party has a plan to deliver on its pledge to reduce net migration ahead of a general election expected next year. Would-be migrants will need to earn £38,700 ($48,900) to qualify for working visas, up from £26,000, under plans set out by Home Secretary James Cleverly in the House of Commons on Monday.
He said the government wants to reduce net annual immigration by 300,000 “in future years," without setting out a precise timetable. Other measures he announced include stopping overseas care workers from bringing family dependents, and ending the 20% salary discount firms can pay for workers on the shortage occupation list.
“The British people will always do the right thing by those in need," Cleverly said. “But they also - and they are absolutely right to want to - reduce overall immigration numbers, not only by stopping the boats and shutting down the illegal routes, but by a well-managed, reduction in legal migration too." Sunak has faced intense pressure from Tory MPs to come up with a plan to tackle surging immigration, after the Office for National Statistics said last week an estimated 672,000 more people moved to the UK than departed in the year ending June.
Party strategists see immigration — and the government’s failure to reduce overall numbers — as a key electoral issue. Ministers have spent months talking about stopping asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the English Channel, one of five pledges Sunak has asked voters to judge him by.
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