Rishi Sunak is to unveil a major package of measures on Monday to slash record levels of net migration, including a big increase in the salary threshold for foreign workers.
The Prime Minister has bowed to pressure from Cabinet ministers and MPs for a significant rise in the minimum salary required for a foreign skilled worker to come to Britain from its current level of £26,200.
It is understood the new figure will be higher than the £35,000 a year – the current median salary – proposed by Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, as the lowest potential figure.
The move goes further than some anticipated and effectively revives the pre-Brexit immigration system, when skilled foreign workers largely required degrees.
Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, claimed Mr Sunak agreed to a £40,000 salary threshold as part of a deal to secure her support during the second leadership election. She and Mr Jenrick are understood to have pushed for a figure of up to £45,000.
One senior Whitehall source familiar with the scale of the announcements told The Telegraph: “People will be surprised at how strong a package it is.”
Mr Sunak is also believed to have accepted further proposals demanded by MPs on the Right of the Conservative Party who have claimed the surge in net migration since Brexit has amounted to a betrayal of the party’s election pledge to voters.
Net migration hit 745,000 in the year to December 2022, three times its pre-Brexit level of around 240,000 and blowing a hole in the Tories’ 2019 manifesto commitment to reduce overall levels of migration.