New Home Secretary Cleverly ready to overrule Jenrick on migration policy
Home Secretary will take on board minister’s package of proposals but will seek fresh plans to try to bring down numbers. James Cleverly will not be bounced into adopting measures to reduce net migration numbers coming into the UK despite an outcry over this week’s figures from Tory MPs, i understands.
The Home Secretary will draw up new plans to bring down the overall migration figures after ONS data revealed this week that 672,000 people entered the country in the year to June.
It sets up a potential collision course between Mr Cleverly and his Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who has already put forward a raft of policies to No 10 to dramatically bring down the number of migrants.
Among the plans believed to have been pushed by Mr Jenrick is a cap on foreign care workers, a ban on them bringing family members into the country, an increase to the salary threshold from £26,200 to closer to £35,000 and even scrapping the shortage occupation list.
The measures were drawn up by the immigration minister alongside the former home secretary Suella Braverman.
But i understands that while Mr Cleverly will take on board the recommendations, he will also seek fresh proposals to ascertain what else could deliver a reduction in numbers coming into the country.
The overarching message from the new Home Secretary will be one of having control over the numbers, allowing in migrants that will both fill labour market gaps and add benefit to the economy.
The Home Secretary is understood to want to get the package of measures right instead of reacting to pressure to start slashing the number of entrants into the UK.
Mr Cleverly has said that the net migration figures released this week showed that the levels were “too high”, but he i understands he wants to strike a right balance when it comes to delivering economic benefit and driving down numbers.
Despite suggestions this week that any plans to reduce immigration would cause tensions with the Treasury, sources have insisted that the sheer size of the inflow has meant Treasury officials are board with the reduction plans.
“Even the Treasury are wincing at the scale of the migration figures because the current levels are clearly unsustainable,” a source said.
Civil servants are said to be “uncomfortable” at the ONS statistics on net migration, which are higher than those projected by the OBR in the autumn statement and caused “shock” in the Treasury.
Jeremy Hunt has encouraged businesses to rely more on training British workers than importing them from abroad – an ally said: “Our model is to move from low-skilled migration.”
Boris Johnson used his column in the Daily Mail to wade into the immigration debate, demanding Rishi Sunak drastically increase the salary threshold for visas in a bid to reduce the numbers.
He said: “The minimum income for most types of migrant worker coming to the UK should now go right up to £40,000 or more — because it is the right thing for migrant workers, and for the entire British workforce.
“When we do it, I will tell you what will happen. A lot of very rich people in this country will go crackers.”
And he added: “They will protest that they cannot afford to run their businesses if they have to pay their foreign workers that kind of money; and they will complain in the same breath that British people are too idle and feckless to do those types of jobs.”
Speaking during a visit to car manufacturer Nissan in Sunderland, Rishi Sunak said: “I’m very clear that the levels of migration are too high and they’ve got to come down to more sustainable levels.”
He pointed to the ONS recording that migration was “slowing” but said he recognised “we’ve got more to go” to bring down the number of entrants.
The Prime Minister is understood to have blocked plans to scrap two-year graduate visas, which were also understood to be part of the Mr Jenrick’s and Ms Braverman’s package of policies.
It follows Cabinet tensions last spring when plans were drawn up to lower immigration by cracking down on international students bring family members into the country.
Several Tory MPs, including former universities minister Chris Skidmore, have called for the Government to strip international student numbers out of the overall figures, warning they add up to £42bn to the wider economy.
There are also concerns within the Department for Health and Social Care over plans to reduce the number of health and care visas after Home Office figures showed 143,990 work permits were provided for the health sector in the year ending September.
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