Tories clash over Suella Braverman’s plans to charge migrants £2,000 for NHS treatment

Sir John Hayes outlines the scale of net migration to Britain

Ministers have clashed over demands for tougher immigration rules over fears changes would hit the economy.

Suella Braverman’s Home Office wants workers to face a £2,000 annual fee for using the NHS as well as a significant increase in the amount migrants must earn to qualify for a visa.

But Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is resisting attempts to tighten the “generous” system in case it derails his attempts to put the economy back on track.

A source said: “The points-based system is far too generous. Other countries think we are too generous.

“We need to make changes to make it tougher, such as on the health surcharge and raising the salary threshold, but the Treasury is the block.”

Suella Braverman and Jeremy Hunt (Image: Getty)

The Home Secretary yesterday told the Commons “immigration policy is under constant review”.

Net migration – the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving – hit a record 606,000 last year.

Tory MPs today (Monday) launched a report calling for more action to drastically reduce numbers. The New Conservatives said British employers had become “addicted” to cheap foreign labour and argued it was time to “turn off the taps” of low-skilled workers arriving from abroad.

They set out a 12 point plan to cut numbers, including increasing the salary threshold for migrant workers and increasing the health surcharge.

The Daily Express understands Home Office ministers have already floated both proposals but are frustrated at the resistance from the Treasury.

MPs to crackdown on migration crisis (Image: Getty)

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Visa and immigration applicants are currently charged £624 a year for using the health service. Raising that to £2,000 would be a “fairer” reflection of the costs, a source said.

The minimum a skilled worker must earn to secure a visa in the UK is £26,200. But ministers believe that allows almost everyone who applies to qualify because it is set too low.

The New Conservatives have called for it to be raised to £38,000. But the Treasury is said to fear that such measures will hit economic forecasts drawn up by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

Asked at the launch event for the migration report about tensions between the Home Office and the Treasury, Conservative MP James Daly said: “The Chancellor is a very reasonable man.

“His stewardship of the economy is clearly taking us in the right direction. He is also a realistic man and he wants to respond to the needs of constituents around the country. There is always a balance to be had between what the Treasury desires and what other departments desire. But this is to such an extent now that I’m sure the Chancellor takes a very positive view of what we are saying.”

Ms Braverman was asked in the Commons about the possibility of raising the skilled work visa salary threshold to £38,000 a year. She said “net migration is too high” and that overall numbers needed to be reduced.

We expect net migration to return to sustainable levels over time and immigration policy is under constant review,” Ms Braverman added.

Ipswich MP Tom Hunt said the debate was “not just about GDP” but also includes “rapid social cultural change”, which needs to be “taken in the round”.

He dismissed suggestions that universities will go bust as a result of the group’s recommendations that the rules around student visas are tightened up.

“It’s not the job of government to prop up private institutions,” he said.

Sunak launches new Illegal Migration Bill (Image: Getty)

Mr Hunt said levels of migration were “too high” and “unsustainable”. He called for the Government to go “further” but denied suggestions that the group was looking to “undermine” Mr Sunak.

The group pointed back to the Tory 2019 manifesto pledge to reduce net migration.

Mr Hunt said the Prime Minister had been “incredibly brave” with his tough new Illegal Migration Bill that will allow migrants arriving illegally to be swiftly deported.

He added: “I think it is wrong to brand people who have concerns about net migration being at the level it is right now as somehow hostile to immigration, when it is absolutely not the case.

“It is disparaging to label people as xenophobes for having concerns about having net migration at half-a-million a year.”

Miriam Cates, the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said that “huge volume” of migration to towns and cities in the last decade “changes the culture very significantly”.

“It’s very difficult for local cultures, local communities, local societies to keep up with that change. It’s the pace of change that people find difficult as well as the change itself.”

Ms Cates said only when the supply of cheap labour was scaled back would Britons be able to gain better skills. She said that without reforms “we’re not going to stop the addiction to cheap labour”.

“We’ve got stagnant wages, stagnant productivity, we’ve got really difficult labour market conditions because of years and years of not investing in our own people,” she said.

“We are never going to realise the value of our own workers and upskill our own workers if we don’t turn off the taps to mass legal migration.”

A Treasury source said it was “not aware” of any issue relating to migration reforms that the Treasury or Chancellor is “blocking.”

Who are the new conservatives?

Miriam Cates represents Penistone and Stocksbridge (Image: PA)

The New Conservatives launched in May with a mission to help the party reflect the interests of red wall voters that backed the party for the first time.

As well as migration, the group wants to focus on cuts to the army, the rise of the “woke” agenda and tax freezes that have left people worse off.

Made up of around 25 MPs from the last two general election intakes, members say their philosophy can be summed up in the phrase “common sense for the common good”.

It adds: “We share the patriotic, kind, no-nonsense values of the British people, and for policies that will make us a stronger, safer and more united country.”

Devizes MP Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates, who represents Penistone and Stocksbridge, founded the group.

MPs on the right of the party from across the north and Midlands have signed up, including Stoke-on-Trent North’s Jonathan Gullis, James Daly, who represents Bury North, the most marginal constituency in the country, and Peterborough’s Paul Bristow, a close ally of Boris Johnson.

Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson was expected to speak at yesterday’s (MON) migration event but journalists were told he had “a terrible sick bug” and was at home recovering.

MPs on the group have faced accusations they are undermining Rishi Sunak by setting out their own policy manifesto.

But they all insisted they were loyal to the Prime Minister and were simply sharing ideas about how to resolve the seemingly impossible problem of rising migration.

Comment by Danny Kruger – Conservative MP

Devizes MP Danny Kruger (Image: )

In 2016, with the Brexit referendum, British politics changed forever. The people told the politicians to govern with different values and interests in mind.

Instead of an economy built on imported goods and labour, they demanded domestic industry and jobs for British workers. Instead of cultural values deriving from Karl Marx and the French existentialists, they demanded a return to patriotic common sense.

After the agony of the Theresa May years, Boris Johnson and then Rishi Sunak have done their best to deliver on this agenda. We got Brexit done, we’re investing in industry and we’re pushing back on woke nonsense in schools.

But the issue voters across the country – from the Red Wall to the Tory heartlands – bring up time and again is immigration.

The Government is working hard to stop the boats. It’s encouraging that the PM said last week he’d stand up to the courts and the House of Lords in doing “whatever is necessary” to get illegal immigrants on planes to Rwanda.

We need to go further. In 2019, our manifesto promised to cut net migration, then at 226,000. Last year it was 606,000, meaning we’ve actually nearly tripled it.

This week the New Conservative Group of MPs, all elected since the referendum, put forward proposals to cut legal migration and honour our promise.

The Government should restrict visas for foreign students, especially those bringing their families with them – and it should raise the salary threshold from £26,200 to £38,000 (the point when a migrant starts making a net contribution to the economy). It should only offer visas to people who can speak good English.

Make no mistake – Labour wouldn’t do any of this. They want to open the borders to illegal migrants and offer more visas to fill care home and farm vacancies.

Conservatives believe in training British people to do the jobs that need doing and paying them properly for it.

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