When Rishi Sunak brought Suella Braverman back into Cabinet as Home Secretary on October 25 last year, it was seen as a clear signal to the right of the party that he would crack down on migration.
At the heart of her reappointment, according to allies of the former home secretary, was a written agreement with four key proposals to curb net migration, which official figures have shown was about to reach a record high of 745,000 for the year ending in December. 2022.
The deal, seen by the Telegraph, included measures to meet the Conservatives’ 2019 pledge to reduce overall migration levels from the then pre-Brexit level of 239,000. Ms Braverman and her supporters believed that the document, although unsigned, had been repeatedly agreed verbally by Mr Sunak and witnessed by others.
The deal helped secure the support of Ms Braverman and her parliamentary supporters on the party’s right as Mr Sunak tried to cement the leadership following Liz Truss’s resignation as prime minister.
Her allies claim her demands – followed in six letters to the prime minister over 12 months – were ignored, leaving the party open to criticism for breaching its manifesto commitments. These are the measures that Ms. Braverman has proposed.
1. Raising employee salary thresholds
In the deal seen by The Telegraph, she sought to increase the minimum salary threshold required for foreign skilled workers to get a visa from £26,200 a year to £40,000. This would aim to reverse the 150 percent increase to 335,000 overseas foreign workers granted visas this year, compared to pre-pandemic levels.
So far there has been no change. Downing Street is now considering raising the level, although no decision has yet been made and speculation has suggested it is more likely the level will be raised in line with inflation as it has been frozen since its introduction in 2020.
That would take the figure to around £30,000, still well below the £40,000 Ms Braverman was seeking and the amount advocated on Friday by Boris Johnson, who, as architect of the points-based immigration system, also admitted it was a “mistake ” Has been. to set it as low as it was originally.
Such a large increase is supported by the right of the party in the form of the New Conservatives, who have called for an increase to £38,000, which they estimate would reduce the number of migrants by 54,000 a year.
Ms Braverman then went further, pushing for £45,000, while Immigration Secretary Robert Jenrick is calling for at least £35,000, the average salary for British workers.
However, Professor Brian Bell, chairman of the government’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), warned that any figure above one linked to inflation would effectively convert foreign-skilled work into university-level employment, turning back the clock to what it was before Johnson introduced the reforms. system.
2. Limit the number of dependents
Indeed, ahead of May figures showing net migration had reached a then-record 606,000, the Prime Minister announced restrictions on the dependents of postgraduate students. From January, only postgraduate students doing research will be allowed to bring family members, potentially cutting as many as 150,000 from the net migration total.
Mr Sunak has hailed it as the “strongest measure” anyone has ever taken to reduce the level of legal migration for a long time, but Ms Braverman wanted him to go further and reduce dependencies on all visas – and especially on the field of health and social care. where 144,000 workers brought in 174,000 spouses or children.
Mr Jenrick, who co-signed Ms Braverman’s latest letter on net migration in October, has called for a ban on all dependent care workers and a cap on all health and social care visas.
It is understood that Steve Barclay, then Health Secretary, also advocated a lockdown on dependents of healthcare workers, only to see the proposal fail despite resistance from his own officials and other Whitehall departments.
It is now back on the agenda as an option being considered by Number Ten, although it may not end in an outright ban, but instead may instead be limited to, say, one dependent per employee.
Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, is open to discussions about reducing the number of dependents but is concerned that any cap on visas could damage efforts to reduce the backlog on the NHS waiting list.
3. Visa for Ax Graduates
Ms Braverman used a letter to the Prime Minister last November to expand her proposal to abolish the two-year graduate visa, which would allow students to stay in Britain for two years after studying with their family members and without any obligation to to work.
She suggested instead that they would be given a four-month grace period to remain in Britain after graduation, where they could look for work – and if successful, switch to a work visa. Otherwise they would have to leave. The New Conservative MPs believe this would reduce migration by 50,000 a year.
It has been opposed by Number Ten, the Ministry of Finance and Education, because it offers universities an attractive selling point to foreign students, whose higher tuition fees cross-subsidize the costs of British domestic students, reducing the need for more state support.
However, Ms Braverman is a supporter of the MAC, who opposed its introduction over concerns it would act as a “backdoor” for foreign students to enter the UK labor market.
Professor Bell said he was concerned this had led to foreign students using one-year masters courses to gain access to work in Britain for two years, often in lower-skilled jobs.
4. ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees, shortage professions and caps
In the agreement, Ms. Braverman outlined her concerns that there was “a large increase in the number of foreign students from developing countries attending non-Russell universities for Business Studies Masters with dependents.”
She wanted to “prioritize” certain universities and courses that she felt were sacrificing standards to increase revenues by taking higher-paid, lower-quality foreign students, often called Mickey Mouse degrees by critics.
Number Ten confirmed in May that it was looking at “low quality” degrees, but has so far taken no action following warnings from the MAC and universities that this could drive some institutions into bankruptcy.
In her November 2022 letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Braverman also called for the abolition of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL), which allows companies to hire foreign workers at 20 per cent below the going rate if they struggle to fill roles. as?
This is supported by the MAC, which is concerned that it is being used by companies to exploit cheap skilled labour, which will not only undermine the market but also put a brake on the training of domestic UK workers to fill the gaps. Labor has promised to scrap it if they win the election.
Number Ten is considering reforms to the list, but there are likely to be exceptions for health and social care staff. Downing Street is also believed to be skeptical of Ms Braverman’s demands (backed by Mr Jenrick) for a cap on health and care visas due to concerns about the impact on reducing NHS waiting lists.
Ms Braverman also proposed an overall ceiling on migration, set at a level agreed each year by Parliament, similar to the ceiling proposed in the Illegal Migration Act on the number of refugees admitted annually via safe and legal routes . However, such a general limit is firmly excluded.
A Tory ally of Braverman said: “The Prime Minister must get on with delivering on our 2019 manifesto promise, rather than trying to fool people with warm words and vague promises. Suella was very clear about what needed to be done and he just ignored her. That’s why they didn’t like her, because she had policy principles.”
Yesterday, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Mr Sunak defended himself against claims that he had reneged on a ‘deal’ to implement key policies in return for her backing his leadership bid.
“Of course you have conversations with people when you run in a leadership election, and not just with Suella,” Mr Sunak said. Asked if he was concerned about her providing evidence of a deal, he said: “That’s a question for her. I will continue to actually deliver things.”
Number Ten said Mr Sunak had been very clear that he believed migration was too high and needed to be reduced to more “sustainable” levels. A Downing Street spokesperson noted that the numbers were declining, adding: “We are ready to take action and do more.”