Finally, a migration policy we can welcome

AT 82 pages, the leaked Home Office proposals for controlling immigration after Brexit are far too long and complicated, as only Whitehall could make them.

But the principles underpinning them are thoroughly sound. Indeed, there’s barely a word among these many thousands with which the great majority of the public would disagree.

Put simply, the plan is to refocus migration policy so as to put British workers and their families first – overturning a system tailored principally to the interests of migrants and employers of cheap labour.

This means welcoming EU nationals who will benefit our economy and society, while turning away those who won’t (though the rights of Europeans already settled here will be fully respected).

Thus, the door will be kept open to those with specialist skills firms need, as well as to labourers such as fruit-pickers, needed to fill seasonal shortages.

But employers seeking to recruit unskilled workers from abroad, in the hope of undercutting the domestic workforce, will first have to prove that no Britons are available. Meanwhile, foreign criminals will be turned away, while those who commit serious offences here will be deported.

As for EU nationals’ right to settle in Britain, this will have to be earned. And only close relations will be entitled to join them, ending the free-for-all under which there is almost no limit to the number of non-EU family members we must allow in.

What makes this document so remarkable is that it expresses truths long suppressed in Whitehall. For example, it frankly acknowledges public concerns over the pressures of mass immigration on wages, public services – and, yes, social cohesion.

In a breath of fresh air, it also admits there is ‘nothing inevitable’ about high levels of immigration, suggesting the Government’s target of cutting net numbers to the tens of thousands is realistically attainable.

Indeed, these proposals resonate with robust but humane common sense, echoing the wishes of the public, as expressed in poll after poll.

So how depressing – if predictable – that they have provoked howls of outrage from an unholy alliance of the metropolitan Left and big businesses greedy for cheap labour.

In a grossly distasteful tweet, one Guardian journalist even likened the plans to the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews.

Meanwhile, bosses of some of Britain’s biggest companies have protested by refusing to sign a letter backing the Government’s phased approach to Brexit. Remember how those same bosses were dragooned by David Cameron’s Government into trying to terrify Britain into voting Remain? Presumably, they will be delighted if Theresa May fails and Jeremy Corbyn starts running their affairs.

Mrs May should shrug off their hysteria. After being ignored for far too long, the people are solidly behind her. And in a democracy, theirs is the voice that matters.