QUID PRO QUO
All migrant workers MUST earn at least £38,700 to get visa, says Tories as Kemi wants stricter entry rules
In government, the Conservatives increased the minimum salary requirement for skilled-worker visas to £38,700
ALL migrant workers must earn at least £38,700 to get a visa under a proposed Tory clampdown on low-wage foreign labour.
And leader Kemi Badenoch wants tighter spouse entry rules to stop couples marrying for residency permits.
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They include mandating both partners to be over 23 and to have been wed for a minimum of two years, while first-cousin marriages will be automatically denied.
In government, the Conservatives increased the minimum salary requirement for skilled-worker visas to £38,700.
But to cut net migration from a record high of nearly one million, they now want this threshold applied to all foreign labour.
This would include health workers and those in sectors with shortages, such as construction.
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Brits who want to bring a spouse to the UK on a family visa would also need to earn this amount, up from the current £29,000 threshold.
More than 86,000 people came to the UK on family visas last year, with Pakistanis making up a sixth of those arrivals.
The Tories are also pledging to cap the number coming from a single country at seven per cent.
Ms Badenoch has also proposed only accepting couples aged over 23 to combat forced marriages, and a ban on visas for first-cousin marriages
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Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “The numbers coming into the UK on family visas have been far too high, and these measures will fix that.”
“For too long we have seen mass low-skilled low-wage immigration into the UK. We now know that actually costs the taxpayer money, puts pressure on services and undermines social cohesion.”
He will table the reforms as amendments to Labour’s flagship Borders Bill in Parliament.
Sir Keir Starmer will shortly announce a slash migration that forces bosses to train more home-grown workers rather than hire from overseas.
A Home Office source said: “The Tories had 14 years to reform immigration and asylum, yet they left a system in chaos and our borders weaker.”
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