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Migrant points plan will help boost Northern economy by tempting talent away from the capital
MIGRANTS who try to move to Britain after Brexit will be given preferential treatment if they agree to live outside London.
The policy – which is to form part of the new Immigration Bill to be unveiled in tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech – is designed to attract skilled workers to less prosperous parts of the country.
Under a new points-based system, people will be allowed to live and work in the UK if they score highly enough on measures including education, salary level, skills – and a willingness to work away from the South East.
The new Bill – one of 22 being introduced by the Government to set out its post-Brexit domestic agenda – will outline Home Secretary Priti Patel’s radical plans for immigration following the end of free movement of EU citizens.
She was inspired by the Australian model, which awards 20 points for skilled migrants with ‘superior’ English and ten points for those who are ‘proficient’ in the language. Those with just ‘competent’ English do not score any points.
Migrants from in-demand professions such as doctors, nurses or computer programmers, also score more highly. But it is the attempt to spread the new arrivals around the country by awarding a higher score for those who will work in lowincome areas which is likely to attract most attention.
Last night, a source close to Ms Patel said that the aim of the plan was to make sure that the deprived areas of the country which backed Brexit received a fair share of the influx of skilled staff.
The source said: ‘A lot of the areas that voted to leave have seen huge numbers of unskilled migrants moving in, while the more highly educated workers have piled into London.
‘While nobody is against opening the country up to more high- skilled immigration, the benefits have to be spread more evenly.
‘We’re in the early days of drawing up the new points-based immigration system, but are thinking about how it could be designed to make sure places other than London feel the benefits.’
According to No 10, the Queen’s Speech will be devoted to ‘getting Brexit done’, with a series of measures designed to allow the UK to ‘seize the opportunities’ presented by leaving the EU.
Central to Boris Johnson’s legislative programme will be a Withdrawal Agreement Bill, containing the details of any deal achieved at this week’s EU Summit.
No 10 says that it will ‘move at pace to secure its passage before October 31’.
But the Queen’s Speech will also offer a foretaste of the next Conservative Election manifesto, with Bills boosting spending on the National Health Service, crime, science and infrastructure.
It will also include an attempt to tackle the thorny issue of social care, which helped to torpedo the Conservatives’ 2017 Election campaign because of the controversy over Theresa May’s so- called ‘dementia tax’.
Government advisers helping to draw up the Queen’s Speech have jokingly referred to it as the ‘People’s Speech’, in reference to the Election campaign that Mr Johnson is likely to frame as a ‘people versus Parliament’ battle.
Ms Patel, who says that her new system of immigration will break with the philosophy of a ‘hostile environment’ for migrants and replace it with the principle of ‘control with compassion’, is a longstanding Brexit supporter.
She says she is keen to deliver on
‘Deprived areas that backed Brexit should benefit’
the Leave campaign’s promise to ‘take back control’ of the country’s borders and restore public faith in the system.
The Home Secretary has arranged for Australian government officials to fly over to help implement the new system. Earlier this month she met Peter Dutton, her Australian counterpart, while both ministers were in the US for talks with Donald Trump’s administration.
Ms Patel was applauded by Tory members at the party’s annual conference in Manchester earlier this month when she said that she would ‘end the free movement of people once and for all’.
The Home Office has also drafted a new Extradition Bill which will allow the deportation of suspects who are wanted abroad to be fasttracked. It will give police the power to immediately arrest and extradite criminals who are the subject of Interpol red notices without applying to the courts – as long as the request has been made by a ‘trusted country’, rather than states such as Russia, where there are concerns about the justice system.
The Bill is designed to replace many of the powers which the police possess under the European Arrest Warrant system, which will disappear after Brexit.
Mr Johnson said last night: ‘Getting Brexit done by October 31 is absolutely crucial, and we are continuing to work on an exit deal so we can move on to negotiating a future relationship based on free trade and friendly co- operation with our European friends.
‘But the people of this country don’t just want us to sort out Brexit. They want their NHS to be stronger, their streets safer, their wifi faster, the air they breathe cleaner, their kids’ schools better-funded – and this optimistic and ambitious Queen’s Speech sets us on a course to make all that happen, and more besides.
‘After one of the least active parliaments in living memory, the proposals we are bringing forward will get this country moving again.
‘This is a Queen’s Speech that will deliver for every corner of the UK and make this, once again, the greatest place on earth.
‘Public trust in Parliament is at an all-time low, but Conservatives are determined to reinvigorate Parliament and demonstrate to the public that the issues that matter to them are being properly addressed.’
‘We’re going to get this country moving again’