Member News
Gordon Brown has pledged to "tighten" the UK's immigration rules by reducing the number of professions that can recruit from outside Europe.
The prime minister accepted that immigration is an issue "at the heart of our politics" which must not be regarded as taboo or surrendered to fringe parties.
He announced plans for the reduction of thousands in the number of posts on the government's shortage occupation list, where foreign workers can gain access to jobs where the UK needs to recruit from abroad.
"We will remove more occupations and therefore thousands more posts from the list of those eligible for entry under the points-based system," the prime minister said.
The speech signals a major shift in the government's immigration policy, ensuring that the population will not reach 70 million over the next 20 years as official forecasts have suggested.
Speaking in West London, the prime minister defended the UK's points-based system for immigrants from outside the European Economic Area.
Brown said the system had contributed to a 44 per cent fall in inward migration across the last year.
Plans were also announced to review foreign student visas and whether they should only be granted to those students studying degree and post-graduate courses and stopped for those seeking to study shorter courses.
Article Comments
Silly fool thinks that it's good for UK Ltd to reduce professional migration. *face palm*
Lee Hastings
12th Nov 2009 at 4:25 pm
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.