“We’re putting an end to cut-price labour from overseas” Rachel has said as she backs the Government’s “radical” plan to cut net migration.
The five-point plan will ensure immigration always benefits the UK by stopping immigration from undercutting British workers.
Measures include stopping overseas care workers and students from bringing family dependants, increasing the salary threshold for skilled workers by almost 50%, ensuring people can only bring dependants they can support financially and scrapping salary discounts for shortage occupations.
Together, this package of measures will mean around 300,000 people who came to the UK last year would now not be able to come.
In welcoming the new plan, Rachel said:
“Immigration is far too high which puts unsustainable pressure on our public services.
“By making these changes and making full use of our Brexit freedoms, this Conservative Government is taking the long-term decisions to deliver the biggest reduction in net migration on record.
“For too long, there has been an over-reliance on migration to fill job vacancies. We’re putting an end to that by increasing the earning threshold for overseas workers by nearly 50% and by cracking down on cut-price labour from overseas by ending the 20% going rate salary discount for shortage occupations.
“This will put British workers first and incentivise businesses to invest in domestic workers.
“We’re doing this through Government investment in our Local Skills Improvement Plan, ensuring employers in Redditch have access to the workforce they need, and by developing a Digital Innovation and Manufacturing Centre in the town centre thanks to our £16.6 million Town Deal.”
Those coming on the Health and Care visa route will be exempted from the increase to the salary threshold for Skilled Worker visas, so we can continue to bring the healthcare workers that our care sector and NHS need.
