UK Immigration News

The UK's immigration minister, Mark Harper MP, has resigned after revealing that, for seven years, he had been employing an immigrant with no right to work in the UK.

Mr Harper said that he had done nothing illegal but said that 'as Immigration Minister…I should hold myself to a higher standard than expected in others'. Mr Harper was responsible for driving the Coalition government's controversial new Immigration Bill through parliament.

Prime Minister David Cameron accepted Mr Harper's resignation 'with regret'.

A UK group which lobbies on behalf of technology start-up companies has called for a reform to the UK's employment-based immigration system to allow firms in the sector to recruit the best talent.

Russ Shaw of Tech London Advocates told Computer Weekly magazine 'We'd love to have a lot more home-grown talent but we need to supplement that with global talent to build and grow these businesses. We need to adjust the immigration policies and many other things'.

The President of the European Commission has criticised UK Prime Minister David Cameron for his 'narrow, chauvinistic' policies and pronouncements on the European Union and immigration. Jose Manuel Barroso warned that, in the run-up to the EU elections in May 2014, 'we are seeing a rise in extremism'.

The UK's House of Commons voted on the Coalition government's Immigration bill on Friday 31st January 2014. The bill was passed by the Commons and will now proceed to the House of Lords. By law, the Lords cannot legally prevent the passage of the bill, but they can delay it by introducing amendments and returning it for further votes in the Common.

Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, has said that there is 'no chance' of a renegotiation of EU treaties resulting in a limitation on the right to free movement of labour within the European Union. Meanwhile, in London, pressure is growing on the UK's Prime Minister David Cameron from Eurosceptic Conservative MPs for just such controls to be introduced.

The UK's Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that a new 'tech visa' will be introduced in April 2014. There will, in fact, be no new visa stream but the rules of the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) visa stream will be changed to allow exceptionally talented programmers and IT professionals to apply.