Tories unveil plans to ‘control’ immigration
The number of people allowed to migrate to the UK would be controlled under plans unveiled by the Conservative party today.
And to make these controls effective, a Conservative government would bring in a specialist border police force to concentrate on people who overstay their visa and those working illegally.
“A socially responsible immigration policy needs proper controls to build public confidence in the system,” said shadow home secretary David Davis.
The 60-page paper by Mr Davis and shadow immigration minister Damian Green argues that Britain benefits economically from some immigration, but not all or any immigration.
And in order to get the best of immigration the Tories propose a two-stage process. The first stage is to make immigrants who would help the economy eligible to come in, the second would be to limit the numbers of people coming in to avoid putting pressure on public services, housing, the environmental and other social factors.
This system would, in most years, see more people enter the country than leave, but the precise figure would be set following an annual consultation exercise.
“While the precise number for any year cannot be predicted at this point, we would expect it to be significantly less than current levels from the rest of the world outside the EU,” Mr Davis said.
Additionally the party stressed the immigration debate should be separated from the asylum debate.
“All of this should be put in the context of a proper national debate about demographics, population levels and the distribution of population,” Mr Davis said.
But the Liberal Democrats have criticised this announcement – saying the Conservative policies do not add up.
“The Tories are doing the splits on immigration: sending out a hardline message to their membership, while attempting to sound reasonable for the PR purposes of David Cameron,” said Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg.
“It simply doesn’t add up to advocate the economic benefits of immigration on the one hand, and then claim that a Conservative government would significantly cut inward immigration without specifying how this would happen.”
Labour accused the Tories of proposing a “meaningless” policy.
Immigration minister, Liam Byrne said: “The Conservatives make vague calls for annual limits on immigration – something opposed by UK business – but that’s meaningless without saying what it is.
“Tackling immigration requires serious action, not vague words.
“That is why Labour is continuing to take the tough action required, including the introduction of identity cards which will help to combat illegal immigration and strengthen our borders.
“The Conservatives can have no credibility on immigration while they oppose ID cards and when they have continually tried to block Labour’s tough and necessary legislation.”
