Sajid Javid (pictured) said that the visa system would focus on skilled workers and that Europeans would be treated the same as those from elsewhere
Far fewer low-skilled workers will be allowed in from Europe after Brexit, Sajid Javid and Theresa May pledged last night.
Unveiling the biggest immigration reform for decades, the Home Secretary vowed to end EU free movement completely.
He said the system would now focus on skilled workers and Europeans would be treated the same as citizens from anywhere else. Mr Javid also warned that migrants would have to integrate.
‘If you want to come to our country and contribute, great,’ he said, speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail. ‘But in exchange, we expect you to live by our British values and respect our values.’
Mrs May, who has made ending free movement a ‘red line’ in her negotiations with Brussels, last night said the proposals would deliver on the referendum vow to take back control of the UK’s borders.
‘For the first time in decades, it will be this country that controls and chooses who we want to come here,’ she said.
The EU has warned it would respond to the UK ending free movement by stripping Britons of the automatic right to work and live anywhere in the bloc. Mr Javid’s pledge came as he burnished his Brexit credentials by saying a Canada-style trade deal was a good option and:
- Left the door open to ditching the Tory target of cutting net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’;
- Pledged a crackdown on middle-class drug users whose habits finance organised crime;
- Boris Johnson meanwhile prepared to give an alternative leader’s speech today at the Tory Party conference;
- Dominic Raab appeared to suggest Britain could slash corporation tax to 10 per cent to keep firms in the UK in the event of a no-deal exit;
- Jeremy Hunt faced a backlash from EU leaders after likening the Brussels club to a Soviet prison.
Theresa May said: ‘For the first time in decades, it will be this country that controls and chooses who we want to come here’
The immigration system unveiled today will be put in place from January 2021, after the UK’s transition out of the EU is complete. European migrants will have to apply for work visas in the same way as those from the rest of the world.
Tourists would remain free to travel to the UK, and business travellers on short trips are expected to face a light-touch regime. The three million EU citizens already living in the UK will have full rights to stay.
Ministers will now work with business to establish the level of immigration needed by the economy. But visa applicants will be required to meet minimum salary thresholds before taking a job.
There will be ‘temporary’ exemptions for areas of the economy dependent on low-skilled migrants but businesses will be told to train up British workers.
Mr Javid said his reforms would result in unskilled immigration from Europe becoming ‘much lower than it is today’.
Sajid Javid and Theresa May, pictured at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, pledged that far fewer low skilled workers would be let in from Europe after Brexit
He questioned the benefit of large-scale unskilled immigration, saying: ‘It must have some kind of negative impact on wages growth in the UK.’
But the Home Secretary insisted Britain would remain ‘a positive, outward-looking nation open to the best talent from across the world’.
He added: ‘The immigration system should be very focused on high-skilled people that we might need and dramatically curb low-skilled people coming to our country. And at the same time look across the world.
‘If we are talking about a software engineer or a surgeon, to me it doesn’t matter about the nationality of that individual, it’s not really important. We want the talent and skill that they are going to bring so it shouldn’t matter if that high-skilled person is coming from India, Australia or France. What matters is the skill that they are going to bring to the UK.’
The Home Secretary, a Eurosceptic who backed Remain, said that the target to slash net immigration to the ‘tens of thousands’ might not last beyond the next election
He said the target to slash net immigration to the ‘tens of thousands’ might not last beyond the next election.
Mr Javid, a Eurosceptic who backed Remain, also waded into the debate over Brexit, hinting that he could switch to backing a Canada-style trade deal if the EU rejected Mrs May’s Chequers plan at this month’s Brussels summit.
He batted away questions about his own leadership ambitions but, in a significant move, he defended Mr Johnson, who has come under fire for his outspoken attacks on Chequers. Mr Javid said the former foreign secretary was ‘a massive asset in campaigning’.