Theresa May and her cabinet have agreed to a post – Brexit immigration system that will offer visas to immigrants in a new tiered system which will be based on skills and wealth. This flagship policy will be on of her key announcements to the Conservative party conference next week.
The government hope these new changes to the migration policy will appeal to party members who have been concerned about May’s leadership and the general Brexit negotiations. Ministers have signed off a plan which has been presented by the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid. The plan will mean skilled workers will now be able to easily obtain visas than unskilled workers and in which there will be no preferential access to the UK labour market for EU citizens.
Territories which strike a free trade deal with the UK, including the EU, will be given enhanced access to the British labour market, but that in the future could include the United States, Canada, or elsewhere.
The update for the Brexit negotiations were held at the end of the cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon and the prime minster mentioned a Canada style trade deal in her presentation. She also added that some EU heads of government were being more constructive than others behind the scene but did not mention any names. The meeting was a relief for the prime minister as she is under an enormous amount of pressure, she will head to New York on Tuesday for a United Nations meeting before she turns her attention to the party conference.
A white paper setting out the new immigration policy is due to be published later this autumn.
The government’s Migration Advisory Committee, a group of independent experts, proposed last week that the UK implement a policy that favours skilled workers in a paper that paved the way for Javid and May. But the proposal did not include unskilled workers from outside agriculture with alarmed many business leased which have insisted they need access to a large labour pool to fill in jobs from various sectors such as construction, haulage and hospitality.
A source has stated that whilst the MAC report said that low skilled immigration doesn’t add anything to the economy but Sajid has recognised the need for certain types of businesses including hospitality and social care.
“So it’s about necessity and what the economy requires, but with an absolute guarantee of ending freedom of movement and not having the preferential system.”