Electronic visas will keep track of visitors to the UK

Home Secretary sets out plans to secure borders after Brexit alongside an end to free movement

VISITORS to the UK from the European Union will have to comply with a Us-style electronic visa system after Brexit, under plans set out today by Home Secretary Priti Patel.

The move towards a new Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system will make it easier for border guards to screen arrivals and to block threats from entering the UK, the Tories say.

It is part of a five-point plan to secure the borders after Brexit to be launched by Ms Patel and Boris Johnson, at a border post today.

Other measures include plans to count visitors in and out of the UK, and to stop migrants using EU identity cards instead of the more secure passports. New powers will also be brought in to stop EU criminals at the border once the UK has left the EU and ended free movement of people.

The renewed focus on immigration comes amid alarm in the Tory party about a tightening in Mr Johnson’s lead. A poll by Survation for Good Morning Britain today gives the Tories a lead of just nine points, compared with 14 per cent two weeks ago.

Controlling immigration is seen as one of the areas in which the Tories are strongest over Labour. Yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn said that he did not believe that freedom of movement could ever come to an end.

He told Sophy Ridge on Sky News: “I don’t think free movement totally could ever come to an end because of the relationship between families, between Britain and Europe.”

The ETA system will be targeted at visitors from EU and Commonwealth countries and will be modelled on the US’S ESTA visa-waiver programme, which allows for frequent return visits within a certain time frame.

Setting out the plans in The Daily Telegraph today, Ms Patel says: “Like me, the British public have had enough of our inability to control who and what comes into our country.

“We are going to end this farce and introduce automated and accurate entrance and exit checks with all visitors required to have biometric passports.”

In a frank admission Ms Patel says “we don’t really know how many people are in the country” as freedom of movement gives anyone from the EU27 countries easy access to the UK.

She says: “Earlier this year, the Office for National Statistics downgraded its immigration statistics to ‘experimental’. In other words, they don’t know how many people are coming into the country or who they are.”

And she complains that “under EU law, previous criminal convictions do not in themselves count as a reason to deny entry to, or deport, someone.

The Tories say that border guards are currently hampered by “limited or no pre-arrival data available for nonvisa nationals”, such as those from the EU or Commonwealth countries.

After Brexit these visitors will have to have “an ETA prior to arrival at the UK border” while guards will be able “to screen arrivals against watch lists and on risk criteria to block threats from entering the UK”, the party says.

UK and Irish citizens as well as diplomats will be the only groups who do not need to have an ETA.

Among the other measures, counting people entering and leaving the UK will mean that border guards can “identify individuals who have breached the terms of their visa and restrict illegal immigration”.

The mandatory collection of information on goods before they cross the border will serve to “stop smuggling and reduce £5 billion revenue leakage”.

Border guards will also be given discretion to turn away criminals after Brexit because the UK will not be subject to freedom of movement rules.

And EU ID cards will no longer be allowed to be used to gain access to the UK. The European Commission warned last year that “weak security features of ID cards in some member states, still issuing paper ID cards, represent a serious security risk, as they can easily be falsified and could be used by terrorists and other criminals to enter in the EU”.