Chris Kelly MP Welcomes Prime Minister’s commitment to ‘get a grip on immigration'
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Chris Kelly MP welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment in a speech on 10 October at the Institute of Government to ‘get a grip on immigration into our country’.
The Prime Minister argued that Britain should ‘attract the brightest and the best’, as well as ‘foreign investors and entrepreneurs’ to come here. He said that Britain had ‘been enriched by the contribution of generations of migrants’ and would ‘always be open to those who are seeking asylum from persecution’.
However David Cameron was concerned that ‘excessive immigration brings pressures, real pressures on our communities up and down the country’. He said that tension could result when ‘large numbers of people arrive in new neighbourhoods, perhaps not all able to speak the same language as those who live there, perhaps not always wanting to integrate, perhaps seeking simply to take advantage of our NHS’.
Between 1997 and 2009 net migration reached 2.2 million people – that’s twice the population of Birmingham. This Coalition Government is taking action to control immigration:
- The Government has capped economic migration from outside the EU.
- The student visa system has been overhauled to tackle abuses.
- The family visa route will now be reformed to ensure that those coming here do not become a burden on the welfare system or on the taxpayer.
Other commitments made:
- The Home Secretary, Theresa May, will change the immigration rules to ensure that the misinterpretation of Article Eight of the ECHR – the right to a family life – no longer prevents the deportation of people who shouldn’t be here.
- The Prime Minister promised to tackle forced marriage.
- David Cameron also said the British citizenship test would be rewritten to include questions on British history and culture.
- The Government will break the automatic link between temporary routes and permanent settlement.
Commenting, Chris Kelly MP said:
‘Under Labour immigration was out control and this put unacceptable pressure on communities and public services across Dudley and the Black Country.
‘This Government has already capped economic migration and overhauled student visas to cut abuses. Our plans to reform the family visa route will help get net migration back down to the sustainable levels in the tens of thousands a year.
‘David Cameron’s commitment to tackle forced marriage will help protect women from what is tantamount to slavery. And Theresa May will now change the immigration rules to help stop Human Rights laws being abused to prevent deportations of those who shouldn’t be here.
‘Labour’s British citizenship test had questions on the benefit system and Europe but not on our history – it’s good this is being put right.’
Conservative Proposals
- Tackling Forced Marriage which is ‘little more than slavery’. Government will criminalise the breach of Forced Marriage Prevention Orders and will consult on creating an offence, in its own right, of forcing someone to marry. To do so we will work closely with those who provide support to women forced into marriage to make sure that such a step would not prevent or hinder them from reporting such cases (Prime Minister’s Speech, 10 October 2011).
- Putting British history and culture at the heart of the British citizenship test. We will revise Labour’s citizenship test which currently has no question on British history but instead has extensive questions on the roles and powers of the main institutions of Europe and on the benefits system within the UK (Prime Minister’s Speech, 10 October 2011).
- Tackling abuses of article 8.Theresa May: ‘we will change the immigration rules to ensure that the misinterpretation of Article Eight of the ECHR – the right to a family life – no longer prevents the deportation of people who shouldn’t be here....The meaning of Article Eight should no longer be perverted. So I will write it into our immigration rules that when foreign nationals are convicted of a criminal offence or breach our immigration laws: when they should be removed, they will be removed’ (Speech to Conference, 4 October 2011).
- Capped economic migration. Since April 2011 the number of non-EU skilled workers employers are able to bring here to work has been limited to 20,700 a year. Employers cannot bring in any non-EU unskilled workers (Home Office Press Release, 6 April 2011).
- Review the level of the cap. The Government will ask the Migration Advisory Committee to review the level of the limit – currently the quota has been undersubscribed every month since it was introduced, with businesses currently using less than half of the monthly quotas (Prime Minister’s Speech, 10 October 2011).
- Allow the best, genuine students only, reducing numbers by a quarter.Students who want to come here should be able to speak English, to support themselves financially without taking paid employment, and to show they are coming for study, not for work. Our proposals will reduce student numbers by 70 to 80,000 visas or over 25 per cent of the total number (Home Secretary’s Statement, 22 March 2011).
- Tackling abuses of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.We will end the abuse of ‘the right to a family life’, which often prevents the removal of foreign nationals convicted of a criminal offence or in breach of immigration law. We will amend immigration rules to ensure a better balance between an individual’s right to a family life, expressed in Article 8 of the ECHR, and the wider public interest, as expressed in the rest of Article 8, in controlling immigration (Home Secretary’s Speech, 4 October 2011).
- Breaking the link between temporary routes and permanent settlement. The Government launched a consultation on breaking this link between temporary and permanent migration. Damian Green, Immigration Minister, said: ‘Settlement has become almost automatic for those who choose to stay. This needs to change. The immigration system has got to be made to work properly’ (Home Office Press Release, 9 June 2011).
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