The Conservatives say they will push for salary thresholds for all work visas to be raised to £38,700, by tabling changes to the government’s immigration bill currently going through Parliament.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the party wants to “bring to an end the era of mass migration”.
It also is proposing changes to marriage visas, introducing a rule that immigrants will not be able to bring partners to the UK unless they have been married for two years, are both aged 23 years or older, and are not first cousins.
Responding, a Home Office spokesperson said: “The Tories had 14 years to reform immigration and asylum, yet they left a system in chaos and our borders weaker.”
Since April 2024, applicants for work visas have to earn at least £38,700 – an increase of nearly 50% from the previous £26,200 minimum – but the threshold does not apply to some jobs, such as in health and social care.
The previous Conservative government rowed back on plans to hike the salary needed to bring family members to the UK, and an increase to a £29,000 threshold was set.
Philp said the previous Conservative government had announced plans for £38,700 salary threshold for UK-based immigrants wishing to bring a foreign spouse, but claimed this had been suspended by Labour.
Too many people arriving on work visas end up in minimum wage jobs, Philp told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, so a new focus should be on “a much smaller number of very high-skilled migrants, rather than mass low-skilled migration”.
“For 20 or 30 years now, we’ve seen huge numbers arriving in the UK, often coming to work on low wages and in low-skilled jobs and it’s time, we think, that ends,” he said.
“We think actually it’s bad for the taxpayer, because recent OBR analysis shows that people coming here on lower wages actually cost the general taxpayer money because they consume more in services than they pay in tax.
“It obviously puts pressure on public services, and in some cases, can undermine social cohesion as well.”
During the initial debate on the bill, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill would be effective, unlike the Conservatives’ plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, which Labour ditched as “a failed gimmick”.
The Border Security Bill sets out Labour’s plan to treat people smugglers like terrorists and repeals most of the Conservative’s Illegal Migration Act 2023, which laid the legal groundwork for the Rwanda policy.
A Home Office spokesperson pointed out that the Conservatives had the opportunity to introduce all the measures they’re now suggesting during the party’s 14 years in government “including the three they passed whilst Chris Philp was a Home Office minister”.
“The Labour government is getting a grip on the system,” they said.
“As part of our Plan for Change, Labour’s Border Security Bill will bring in counter-terror style powers to disrupt the criminal smuggling gangs making millions out of small boat crossings, as well as ensuring police and immigration officers have the powers they need to act where anyone poses a public safety threat.
“As with all proposed amendments to government bills, these will be examined as part of the Parliamentary process.”
