A “set of proposals” have been created by Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick to decrease immigration into the UK. These proposals have not been confirmed as government policy, but are still being discussed internally. One of the key ideas is to set a salary threshold of £35,000 in order to receive a work visa. Numerous Conservative MPs have called for greater action to reduce immigration in the past, and thus are expected to be in favor of this proposal.
Despite the severity of this proposal, Downing Street has stated that the salary threshold is “far too high”, but the government is still acting to decrease immigration figures by restricting dependents of students arriving into the UK. The Migration Advisory Committee has also recommended the abolition of the “Shortage Occupation List”, which signifies the jobs that employers are struggling to fill, an idea which Mr. Jenrick has also supported.
In addition to these initiatives, Mr. Jenrick has proposed blocking health and social care workers from bringing dependents with them when they arrive in the UK, which could cause conflict with the Department of Health. Moreover, Mr. Jenrick has suggested imposing a cap on visas for social care workers, though this could be met with significant resistance given that the NHS and social care both suffer from chronic staff shortages.
Earlier, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman criticized the government’s current stance on immigration, stating that it was a “failure…to control and reduce migration at every opportunity”. She has proposed her own solution to reduce immigration, including an annual cap on migration and a rise in the salary ceiling outside of health and social care to £45,000 per annum. It should be noted that Mrs. Braverman and Mr. Jenrick submitted proposals to No 10 when they worked together, strengthening the belief that they are both committed to immigration reduction.
There are further calls to decrease migration from various other Conservative MPs, highlighting the fact that this could be a significant test for the Conservative Party. As of June of this year, provisional statistics have shown that the rate of net migration may be starting to slow. However, it was observed that the majority of migrants came from non-European Union countries, with students accounting for the largest non-EU demographic
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