How will James Cleverly deliver the biggest ever reduction in net migration?
Home secretary says drastic reforms will 'curb abuse' of the UK's immigration system
![James Cleverly leaning on a No Entry sign next to Doberman](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DR4DDuS8M63zVDZUzAgMh3-415-80.jpg)
James Cleverly has pledged to deliver the "biggest ever" cut in net migration, unveiling a package of measures he says will cut the number of arrivals to the UK by 300,000.
Yesterday, the home secretary announced a five-point plan to reduce legal immigration and "curb abuse" of the UK system. And today Cleverly was in Kigali to sign a treaty with Rwanda that the UK government says addresses the concerns of the Supreme Court and will guarantee the safety of asylum seekers who are sent there.
The government has come under pressure to act after Office for National Statistics figures showed that UK net migration reached a record 745,000 in 2022.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Under the new plans, the minimum salary needed for skilled overseas workers will be raised from £26,200 to £38,700 – an almost 50% increase. The minimum income for family visas will also rise to £38,700.
Health and social care visas will be exempt from the new higher threshold, in order to meet NHS staffing needs, but care workers will no longer be able to bring dependents to the UK.
And the "shortage occupation" list will also be reformed, with an end to companies being able to pay foreign workers only 80% of the usual "going rate" to fill a position – a measure that had been criticised for effectively allowing employers to undercut local wages.
What the papers said
The pressure on the government to act on migration has been "enormous", with some Tory MPs warning the issue was "do or die" for the Conservatives, said the BBC's political correspondent Harry Farley. Many Tory MPs are fearful that Nigel Farage's party, Reform UK, could well "damage their prospects at the next election", with the party now polling around 10%.
Net migration has certainly been an "accountability pinch point" for the Tories, "hence the anguish of many Conservative MPs attempting to reconcile a number treble the one they promised to cut four years ago", added the BBC's political editor Chris Mason. But for ministers, this new plan is about "showing they get it and that plenty want to see the numbers shrivel". But questions remain over whether these policies can bring numbers down, and if so, when that is likely to happen.
Amid the "uproar" over migration figures, "some appear to have forgotten there were particular reasons why the number was so high", with refugees coming here through legal routes escaping from the war in Ukraine, or "communist tyranny" in Hong Kong, said The Scotsman. There were also a large number of foreign students coming to the UK's world-renowned universities as well as people who came to the UK on working visas "to help plug gaps in sectors experiencing vacancy crises, like health and social care".
It is "better if job vacancies in the UK are filled by people already living here", the paper continued, but "putting obstacles in the way of overseas workers despite prolonged, serious shortages will only damage the economy" as well as "increase the considerable pressure on existing NHS and social care staff".
These new immigration measures are a "proportionate response", said The Times in its leading article, "but there are malcontents on the Conservative backbenches for whom it is not enough". Those MPs, former prime minister Boris Johnson among them, "should beware impossible demands and undeliverable promises", warned the paper. The job of the government is to "control numbers without damaging the economy, which more draconian measures would certainly do".
What next?
The focus of the new measures announced by the home secretary yesterday was to find ways to bring down legal migration to the UK. But the government is also under pressure from the Conservative right to "adopt an equally hardline approach to illegal migration", said The Telegraph.
The home secretary was in Rwanda today to sign a new treaty with the east African nation, after the government's plan to send asylum seekers there was halted last month by a UK Supreme Court ruling, which found the plan to be unlawful.
The new treaty will aim to address the ruling and it "paves the way" for Cleverly to introduce emergency legislation in Parliament to try to revive the controversial policy, said the Financial Times.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.
-
Video game performers to strike over AI concerns
Speed Read SAG-AFTRA members are unhappy with gaming production companies
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - July 26, 2024
Cartoons Friday's cartoons - campaign donations, yellow buses, and more
By The Week US Published
-
California orders mass dismantling of unhoused people's camps
Speed Read Gavin Newsom's move follows a Supreme Court ruling last month in favor of an Oregon city that ticketed people for sleeping outside
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
David Cameron resigns as Sunak names shadow cabinet
Speed Read New foreign secretary joins 12 shadow ministers brought in to fill vacancies after electoral decimation
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Thirty years after genocide, France and Rwanda are slowly reconciling
Under The Radar By its own admission, France bore 'serious and overwhelming' responsibilities during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Decades later, relations between the two countries are beginning to thaw
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
The five moments it went wrong for the Tories
In Depth From Partygate to the budget that broke Britain, the pivotal points in the Conservative Party's decline
By Rebecca Messina, The Week UK Published
-
General election: Britain heads to the polls
In depth Voters have remained 'curiously unengaged' throughout a campaign which seems to many like a foregone conclusion
By The Week UK Published
-
Bellwether seats and 'big beasts' at risk: how election night will unfold
In the Spotlight Excitement will 'really ramp up' as key constituencies declared through the night
By The Week UK Published
-
First-past-the-post: time for electoral reform?
Talking Point If smaller parties win votes but not seats, the 2024 election could be a turning point for proportional representation
By The Week UK Published
-
Why the Conservatives are worried about Canada's 1993 election
The Explainer Nigel Farage says Canadian Reform Party are his 'model' for 'reverse takeover' of the Tories
By The Week UK Published
-
Who will be the next Tory leader?
In Depth Senior Conservative MPs are 'on manoeuvres' as James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Robert Jenrick and Mel Stride declare their intention to stand
By The Week UK Last updated