Rishi Sunak’s government raised the salary requirement for people applying to live in the UK, one of a series of measures designed to show voters his ruling Conservative Party has a plan to deliver on its pledge to reduce net migration ahead of a general election expected next year.
Would-be migrants will need to earn £38,700 ($48,900) to qualify for working visas, up from £26,000, Home Secretary James Cleverly said in the House of Commons on Monday. The aim is to reduce annual net immigration by 300,000 “in future years,” he said, without setting out a precise timetable.
Cleverly landed in Kigali, Rwanda on Tuesday morning, his spokesman confirmed, as he sought to revive the other flank of the government’s migration policy: stopping boats carrying migrants across the English Channel. He is expected to sign a treaty with Rwanda that the government hopes will allay concerns in the British courts about its plan to deport asylum seekers to the African country.
