Immigration restrictions extended

Last Modified: 29 Oct 2007
By: Cathy Newman

Channel 4 News has learned restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians coming to work in Britain will be extended.

The Government will announce the limits will be extended for another year and the Conservative leader David Cameron has made his first major speech devoted to immigration.

He called for tighter controls on migrant workers and tougher rules on marriage visas.

Mr Cameron said: "Of course we should recognise that in an advanced, open economy there will be high levels of both emigration and immigration but what matters is the net figure, which I believe is currently too high. It is time for change. We need policy to reduce the level of net immigration and we need policy to strengthen society and combat atomisation."

The Government put limits on the number of Romanians and Bulgarians who were allowed to work in the UK when the two countries joined the EU at the beginning of the year. Ministers fear too many would come looking for jobs if the restrictions were lifted.

In the first six months of this year, 7,775 have come to the UK as self-employed workers, 1,095 with work permits, 75 under a special programme for the highly-skilled, and 6,405 applied to a seasonal scheme for agricultural workers.

The Cabinet will meet to endorse the decision to keep the restrictions in place but one Government official said there was never any doubt as to which way the political wind was blowing.

Immigration is now at the centre of the political battleground. The two main parties are engaged in a kind of bidding war, each vying to come up with the toughest policy.

When Mr Cameron first became Tory leader in 2005, immigration was virtually a taboo subject for him.

His party was punished at the last election for talking about little else. So his first major speech on the issue suggests he believes he has earned the right to talk about immigration without being accused of bigotry.

The Tories want a limit on all immigrants coming to the UK from outside the EU and Mr Cameron announced what he said was a new policy on marriage visas, raising the minimum age for spouses coming to Britain to 21. But that sounded rather familiar because Labour have already announced they will do the same.