New Conservative Group wants govt to stop issuing care visas and tighten foreign student rules

LONDON July 3: A group of Tory MPs named New Conservatives Group will submit a report to the government today requesting to block overseas workers from UK care homes and also tighten rules for international students, according to The Sunday Times.

The New Conservatives Group will demand Prime Minister Rishi Sunak today to adopt their extreme plan for immigration despite a huge number of vacancies.

Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson from New Conservatives Group will speak at its launch today.

The MPs, led by Tom Hunt, are angry that he has failed to deliver on the 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge to slash the numbers of people arriving in this country. Net immigration stood at 226,000 when Boris Johnson made the promise, but it has risen to an all time high of 606,000 since then.

In order to reduce the numbers, the group wants Mr Sunak to take radical action, including ending a scheme to give visas to carers to fill staff vacancies.

Social care workers, care assistants and home care worker roles are currently included on the Shortage Occupation List. This means staff are eligible for the Health and Care Worker visa, lasting either three or five years.

The New Conservatives Group said the immigration system set up by the government after Brexit has been “too lenient” and is not working.

The report to be submitted today points out that a ‘temporary’ relaxation of the rules for foreign care workers, introduced during Covid, remains ‘despite the abatement of the pandemic’. Closing this loophole could reduce numbers by more than 80,000, it says.

The report also calls for the minimum salary threshold for skilled worker visas to be raised to £38,000, potentially cutting numbers by 54,000 a year.

A further tightening of the rules for foreign students, including ending the right of graduates to work in the UK for two years after finishing their courses, could reduce numbers by 174,000 a year, the report says.

It is important to note that the New Conservatives group is a small group. They do not represent the views of all Conservative MPs. However, they are a vocal group and they have been gaining attention in recent months. It is possible that they could become a more significant force in the Conservative Party in the future.

The MPs from the 2017 and 2019 intake, who call themselves the New Conservatives, have issued a 12-point plan to cut net migration to Britain from 606,000 to 240,000 before the end of 2024. They include the Tory party deputy chair Lee Anderson, the backbencher Miriam Cates and the Ipswich MP, Tom Hunt, all usually considered to be loyal to the prime minister.

The measures have been criticised by experts for being over-simplistic and for being potentially damaging to the economy.

Other proposed measures include:

A cap of 20,000 on the number of refugees accepted for resettlement in the UK.
Caps on future humanitarian schemes such as the Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong schemes should the predicted 168,000 reductions not be realised.
Implementation of the provisions of the illegal migration bill, which it is claimed would lead to a reduction of at least 35,000 from LTIM.
A raise in the minimum combined income threshold to £26,200 for sponsoring a spouse and raising the minimum language requirement to B1 (intermediate level). This should lead to an estimated 20,000 reduction in LTIM, the MPs claim.
Making the migration advisory committee report on the effect of migration on housing and public services, not just the jobs market, by putting future demand on a par with labour requirements in all studies.
A 5% cap on the amount of social housing that councils can give to non-UK nationals.
Raising the immigration health surcharge to £2,700 per person a year.