Sir Keir Starmer has announced a raft of new measures to cut down on legal immigration to the UK after numbers shot up post-Brexit.
In a press conference this morning, the Prime Minister promised the measures outlined in today’s white paper will bring down net migration.
He insisted the announcement had nothing to do with the strong performance of the anti-immigration Reform UK party in local elections, which largely came at the expense of Labour and the Conservatives.
Starmer said: ‘I am doing this because it is right, because it is fair, and because it is what I believe in.’
The new measures will have a significant impact on people applying for visas to live in the UK when they come into effect.
They will be introduced over the course of this parliament, with the first changes being brought forward in the coming weeks.
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What is net migration?
Net migration is the term for the difference between the number of people who have left the UK to live in another country and the number of people who have come to live in the UK.
That gives us the amount the population has grown due to immigration.
In 2023, the most recent year available, this figure was 728,000 – around 1,207,000 people immigrated to the UK, while around 479,000 left.
That was a fall of 20% from the year before, when the figure was a record 902,000.
Full list of new immigration rules
Work reforms
- The level for skilled workers coming to the UK will be raised to RQF6 and above, meaning they must have a degree
- The salary threshold will also rise
- Immigration Skills Charge, which employers must pay when they sponsor someone applying for a skilled worker visa, will increase for the first time since it was introduced in 2017
- Social care visas will be closed to new applications from abroad, though visa extensions will be permitted for a transition period until 2028
- Key sectors where there are high levels of recruitment from abroad will be required to come up with strategies for more domestic hiring
- A new Temporary Shortage List will be created, which will allow time-limited access to the points-based system for occupations where there are long-term shortages
- Employers may be restricted from sponsoring skilled visas if they are not committed to increasing skills training for domestic talent
- Routes for hiring the very highly skilled will be opened up
Study reforms
- The length of time graduates are able to stay in the UK will be reduced from two years (or three years for PhDs) to 18 months
- It will become harder for sponsoring institutions to recruit international students, with the pass requirement of the Basic Compliance Assessment raised by five percentage points
- Institutions will have to demonstrate they are ‘considering local impacts’ when making decisions on international recruitment
Enforcing immigration rules
- It will become easier to refuse entry or asylum to those who ‘break the rules or break our laws’
- The rules for deporting foreign national offenders will be made simpler
- eVisas will be rolled out for all overseas citizens to tighten up border security
- Measures will be brought in to ensure other governments play a part in ‘supporting the integrity of the UK immigration system’
- The robustness of tests to ensure adults are not identifying as children will be improved
- Domestic worker visa will be investigated to help tackle modern slavery
Settlement and citizenship
- The time it takes to qualify for settlement will be doubled from five years to ten
- That period will be reduced based on the person’s contributions to UK economy and society
- English language requirements for skilled workers will be increased
- English language requirements will also be introduced for all adult dependents of workers and students
- Parents of a British or settled child, whose child has died, will be able to settle immediately through a new bereaved parent route
- The Life in the UK test for citizenship will be refreshed
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