Rishi Sunak’s government will unveil a major set of measures to bring down net migration to the UK after figures soared to a record high.
The PM is to overhaul a series of visa rules to curb net migration after shock official figures showed net migration stood at 745,000 in 2022.
Mr Sunak has been under severe pressure from right-wing Tory MPs to act since the immigration figures were released, with sacked home secretary Suella Braverman describing them as a “slap in the face”.
His shake-up is set to include a big increase in the salary threshold for migrants and a crackdown on social care staff bringing dependents to the UK.
Home secretary James Cleverly will announce the shakeup with a statement to MPs at 3.30pm on Monday. The current salary threshold of £26,200 is expected to be hiked to £38,000.
And one official confirmed that the number of dependents that social care workers are permitted to bring into Britain will also be cut back in the package.
Mr Sunak and Mr Cleverly are also said to be ready to overhaul of the shortage occupation list, under which companies can pay foreign workers in shortage areas 20 per cent below the going rate.
Suella Braverman has led pressure on Rishi Sunak to cut migration numbers
A senior Whitehall source told The Daily Telegraph that people “will be surprised at how strong a package it is”.
But it is not clear whether Mr Sunak will limit the total number of NHS and social care visas – a move immigration minister Robert Jenrick has been pushing for under a five-point plan.
Privately, two sources said Ms Braverman and immigration minister Mr Jenrick had both pushed for the main salary threshold cap to go even higher – to £45,000.
No 10 would not confirm any details – but said the legal migration package will crack down on “abuse” in the system. “The numbers are too high, there is evidence of abuse in the system and that’s what we will clamp down on.”
In apparent rift with No 10, Mr Jenrick told MPs last week that his own immigration plan “would have been brought to the House before last Christmas if I could have done” – hinting that it had been blocked by Downing Street.
The right-wing immigration minister – a close ally of Ms Braverman – also suggested he was keen to consider her idea of a radical “Australia-style” cap on annual net migration numbers.
Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick has pushed a five-point plan to cut net migration
Tory MP Sir John Hayes – a key ally of Suella Braverman – welcomed the planned package of measures to tackle legal migration. “The government has finally, it seems to me, seen sense,” told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.
The leader of the Common Sense Group added: “There’s been a naivety on the part of some of the people advising government but actually that’s now been put aside and we’re seeing sense, we’re doing the right thing by the British people.”
Pressed on a solution to a lack of workers, and the impact on the NHS and social care, Mr Hayes said: “The solution is to employ British workers for British jobs. It’s not that complicated.”
However, Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said the measures would be “cruel” and “disastrous” for the social care sector given “massive” shortages in the sector.
She predicted that it will mean some foreign workers already here will leave. “What do you think’s going to happen?” she told the World at One programme.
The Unison leader said: “This will be an utter disaster because what they’re doing is basically sending out a really strong message … saying you’re not welcome here.”
She added: “To those who are already here, who do have dependents when they come to renew their visa, presumably they will be told you have to send your children back again.”
Ms McAnea said that it was possible for more British people to work in social care “but not straight away”, saying UK employers would have to start paying people “appropriately to make it a job that is attractive to people”.
Rishi Sunak has vowed to crack down on both legal and illegal migration
After a new JL Partners survey found that just 59 per cent of 2019 Tories plan to vote Conservative – with one in six 2019 Tory voters switching to Reform UK – pollster James Johnson said: “Only one option for the Conservatives now: go big on immigration or go home.”
The issue has opened up huge divides in the Tory party. The New Conservative group of around 35 right-wing Tory MPs exerting huge pressure on Mr Sunak to take radical steps to cut numbers.
But senior Tory moderates, including health committee chair Steve Brine, urged Mr Sunak not to clamp down on NHS and social care visas. “They are the people who look after your ailing parents and grandparents,” he said.
The major overhaul comes as Mr Cleverly is set to fly to Kigali to sign off on an updated agreement with Rwanda to take deported asylum seekers.
British lawyers could be sent to Rwandan courts in order to address concerns about the country’s legal system, after the plan was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.
James Cleverly is set to visit Rwanda this week to sign an updated treaty
The Sunday Times reported that Kigali is to be given a £15m top-up payment to agree fresh terms. But No 10 insisted there had been no demand for extra money. The PM’s official spokesman said: “Certainly I don’t recognise that figure of £15m.”
Senior civil servants at the Home Office are said to have warned No 10 that the emergency Rwanda legislation is destined to fail.
One Home Office source told The Times: “No 10 is very gungho but they’re trying to push this through for political reasons and they don’t know what they’re doing legally. Legislating to say Rwanda is safe doesn’t mean it is true … It’s all gimmicks.”
Government lawyers are reportedly refusing to sanction the most draconian version of the legislation that would opt out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by using a “notwithstanding” clause to direct UK judges to ignore the ECHR on asylum cases.
Senior Tory Mark Francois warned Mr Sunak that he must make sure the UK can opt out of the ECHR as part of the emergency Rwanda legislation.
The chair of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers told GB News: “Rishi promised to stop the boats but as [Tory deputy chairman] Lee Anderson very bluntly pointed out a few weeks ago, well, he hasn’t has he? … We’ve had two goes before. Now it’s three strikes and you’re out”.
