Britain's embattled Conservative government unveiled a raft of measures on Monday, December 4, aimed at cracking down on record levels of regular migration, including raising the minimum salary threshold for a skilled worker visa.
Immigration is set to be a key issue in a general election expected next year, which the main opposition Labour Party is currently favored to win. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to reduce new arrivals but statistics released last month showed that net migration to Britain hit a high in 2022. Sunak's office trumpeted the proposals as "the biggest clampdown on legal migration ever."
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of people who arrived in Britain last year was 745,000 more than the number who left. Interior Minister James Cleverly said his plan would result in 300,000 fewer people coming to the UK in the coming years. "Enough is enough," the home secretary told parliament as he laid out his proposals, which will take effect early next year.
Cleverly said skilled foreign workers wanting a UK visa would have to earn £38,700 ($48,860), up from £26,200 – just over a third more. He exempted health and social care workers, where there are currently staff shortages, in part because of Brexit, but said they would be prevented from bringing family dependents. NHS Providers, which represents hospital groups in England, said changes that might deter care workers from coming to the UK were "deeply concerning." Care England, a charity representing independent adult social care providers, said immigration had been "saving the social care sector."
Cleverly also reaffirmed that Britain would increase the surcharge that migrants pay to access the state-run National Health Service (NHS) by 66 percent, to £1,035. Critics have said this effectively imposes a double charge on migrant workers, as employees have National Insurance charges, which go towards covering healthcare, deducted from wages at the source.
Cleverly raised the minimum income for family visas and confirmed restrictions on international students bringing dependents. He added that the government would reform the "shortage occupation list," which details jobs for which employers are not able to find enough British workers.
The Conservatives won in a landslide under the leadership of Boris Johnson at the last election in 2019, largely on a promise to bring net migration numbers down. The party has repeatedly promised that leaving the European Union, which ended the free movement of people from member states, would allow the UK to "take back control" of its borders. But regular migration has soared since Britain formally left the EU in January 2020. In 2021, net migration was 488,000. The ONS data piled pressure on Sunak from his own MPs to take action, with some right-wingers arguing that the issue was "do or die" for the party.
The Tories, in power since 2010, lag well behind center-left Labour in opinion polls ahead of an election that must be held by January 2025. Labour's home affairs spokesperson Yvette Cooper accused the Conservatives of being in a "chaotic panic" over immigration. "Today's statement is an admission of years of total failure by this Conservative government," she told parliament.
Sunak is also struggling to cut the number of irregular arrivals crossing the Channel from northern France on small boats. About 30,000 have undertaken the dangerous crossing this year. The government has deemed such crossings illegal but its much-trumpeted plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was struck down by the courts last month. Cleverly is due to visit Kigali soon, possibly this week, to finalize a new treaty. The government has also said it is working on "emergency legislation" to get deportation flights going by spring.