UK Immigration News

David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the UK, delivered a speech on 10th June 2013 saying that it was wrong to belittle those with legitimate concerns about immigration. Mr Cameron gave a speech in the southern country of Essex shortly before the UK hosts the latest summit of the leaders of the G8; the eight wealthiest countries on earth The US, Germany, Japan, Italy, France, the UK, Canada and Russia.

The Speaker of the UK's House of Commons, John Bercow, has angered Conservative MPs by giving a speech in Romania in which he said that the UK had benefited because of immigration from the European Union. The Conservatives say that the speaker, whose job it is to control debates in the House of Commons, should always remain neutral and never offer his opinions on any subject for fear of seeming to favour one party's position over another.

The UK's Home Secretary Theresa May is to tell a meeting of European Union immigration and policing ministers that the current right to free movement throughout the EU is being abused and must be limited. She will tell her fellow home affairs ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg on Friday 7th June 2013 that the free movement directive should be amended to allow EU countries to remove EU nationals who migrate with no intention of working.

The latest figures released by the UK government show that the UK immigration authorities managed to process only 51% of employment based UK visas within their Service Standard period (four weeks for postal applications) in the year 2012-13.

They were only able to process 25% of student visa applications within the service standard. Their service standard target was to deal with 65% of employment visas and 85% of student visas within the service standard period of four weeks.

A UK newspaper has reported that the UK is to require EU citizens to work in the UK for 'up to a year' before they can claim benefits. If this happens, it will escalate a dispute between the UK and the EU over 'benefits tourism'.

A group of right-wing Conservative MPs has issued a report which suggests that the UK government should raise money and diversify its economy away from its dependence on the European Union by selling visas to rich individuals and international companies.

The Free Enterprise Group is a recently formed group of 43 Conservative MPs. Its website says that 'Conservatives need to recast the argument about free enterprise for a new age or risk losing the debate to a tide of anti-market socialisation'.