Migration is priority, May tells ministers
THERESA May has ordered ministers to draw up a fresh package of immigration controls this autumn in a bid to bring numbers under control.
Ministers are braced for fresh embarrassment over the issue today, with official figures expected to show net immigration running at about three times the Government’s target of 100,000 a year.
The Prime Minister has now ordered Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit secretary David Davis to make control of EU migration a ‘priority’ during the Brexit negotiations. And she has told Home Secretary Amber Rudd to come up with a new package of measures to cut the number coming from outside the EU.
A government source said: ‘Control over the number of EU migrants will be a priority in the Brexit deal. We are also working on a package to reduce further non-EU immigration across all three visa routes – work, family and students.’
Miss Rudd is working on the new package with officials, but Whitehall sources indicated Mrs May, who spent six years as Home Secretary, will retain oversight. ‘It will be centrally directed,’ one said.
The Prime Minister, who returned from a 12-day holiday in the Swiss Alps yesterday, is understood to be concerned that although the media focus has been on free movement from the EU, non-EU immigration has also been ‘drifting upwards’ for some time.
Mrs May clashed repeatedly with George Osborne over attempts to curb immigration in the past, with the former Chancellor warning it could damage the economy. But with Mr Osborne now sacked, Mrs May has a free hand. The review is likely to have a particular focus on the number of foreign students travelling to Britain to study each year.
Universities and colleges insist they bring vital revenue to the UK, but Mrs May has long been concerned that the system is too easy to abuse.
Andrew Green, chairman of the think-tank MigrationWatch, welcomed the prospect of fresh action on non-EU immigration.
Lord Green said: ‘While we wait for the outcome of Brexit negotiations, it’s essential that the Prime Minister sets further action in hand on non-EU migration, which is half the total. The biggest source of migration from outside the EU is clearly students, very few of whom are recorded as going home. This is where action needs to be focused.’
The most recent figures, released in May, showed annual net immigration stood at 333,000, of which just over half was accounted for by people from outside the EU.
The Tory target to cut net immigration to the ‘tens of thousands’ was originally set by David Cameron in the run-up to the 2010 election, when it stood at 250,000 a year.
Numerous initiatives have followed – including the closure of hundreds of bogus colleges and new income thresholds for skilled migrants from outside the EU – but numbers have continued to rise.
Some Tories had privately urged Mrs May to ditch the target, arguing it could not be achieved. But she confirmed last month that she intended to keep it – but warned it could take more than four years to hit.
‘Action needs to be focused on students’