Immigration

A key concern for my constituents is immigration. Properly controlled it enriches our national life — handled improperly it becomes problematic.

The Government is already clamping down on inappropriate immigration. The conditions for work visas have been tightened up with a cap introduced for non-EU work visas. And many bogus colleges have been closed, choking off the use of sham courses as a cover for illegal working.

Last week I spoke in the House of Commons to support the Home Secretary who made important announcements about tightening up the family immigration route.

Annually around 54,000 people settle here for family reasons. In too many cases this results from sham marriages with thousands lacking a working grasp of English.

Our new measures see greater enforcement for sham marriages and the minimum probationary period for new spouses and partners increased from two to five years.

We will also ensure that those who bring family members here are able to financially support them, meaning minimum annual income thresholds for sponsoring partners.

If a sponsor wants to bring a dependent relative requiring care into the country then we will ensure that they come only where such care is not already available in their own country and where the sponsor is able to cover the costs of the care if it can only be obtained here.

We will ensure that those who wish to settle here have a proper appreciation of our values (validated by a stringent 'Life in the UK' test) and also speak English at the intermediate level.

The plan is to bring net migration down from the hundreds of thousands we had under the last government to the tens of thousands before the next election. I will be monitoring our progress with great diligence.

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