Everything related to the word “immigration” looks like a red flag for Britain’s conservative government. Whether it’s legal or illegal, the Tories want to bring immigration to a standstill after record numbers.

It is recalled that just two weeks ago the Office for National Statistics (ONS) put net migration at 672,000. Home Secretary James Cleverley now declares “so far”. In his official announcement, on Monday, he announced the new five-point plan, which will aim to limit legal immigration, that is, immigrants who come to the country mainly for work or education reasons.

The 5 point plan

Specifically, this includes increasing the required annual income from £26,200 to £38,700 while making it almost impossible for care workers to bring dependents into the country.

At the same time, the annual contribution of all workers from abroad to the National Health System increases from 624 pounds to 1,035 pounds. Students are also targeted by the immigration plan, as the possibility of abuse of student visas will be investigated. Finally, the British Home Office is removing the ability for companies – which have a recognized staff shortage – to pay 20% less to employees who come from abroad to fill these positions.

James Cleverley didn’t just stop at the statements, and after clarifying that the rates are “excessively high”, he spoke about the abuse of residence permits in health and social care work. As he said and according to calculations by the country’s Ministry of Interior, with the new measures at least 300,000 immigrants will no longer meet the conditions to come to the country.

Reactions and wider discussion of possible effects

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the new measures as “an admission of failure by the Conservative government” while UNISON general secretary Christina Makanea took a harsher tone, speaking of “diabolical plans that will bring total destruction to the NHS and social care”.

It is a fact that the UK has huge staff shortages particularly in these areas. According to the government’s website (gov.uk), which uploaded the ministry’s new plan, the percentage of specialized employees and health workers amounts to 63% of all work residence permits. These figures demonstrate the country’s need for a workforce. Today, however, analysts are commenting and predicting possible problems that may arise from the implementation of this new plan. These include the difficulty of the country’s economic recovery as well as its demographic problem, which already exists.

Minister Cleverly’s commitment, despite the reactions, is for the measures to come into force from the spring of 2024. It is characteristic that one day before the announcements, the British Prime Minister, through the newspaper ‘The Sun’, had stated “if you cannot to contribute to the UK, you can’t come to the UK’.

However, the government has to face reactions from its plans for irregular immigration, specifically the new agreement that was signed just yesterday with Rwanda. According to information from the Telegraph, nearly 10 deputy ministers have threatened Sunak to resign if he uses the emergency bill, which bypasses the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), to carry out the first flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda.