#175 One more reason to hate the Tories

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The UK Government has just decided to double the minimum income requirement for British citizens wanting to bring foreign spouses to live in the UK.

2024 will be a general election year and news that the net migration figures, which the current Government was elected to reduce, are at an all time high has caused waves of panic through the conservative party, who are desperate to pander to the most base desires of the electorate, are reacting with desperate measures which will do nothing to stop illegal immigrants arriving by boats but will just prevent loving families from settling and working in the UK.

The Labour Party, which is just as desperate as the Tories, and the media, who love sensation, are doing nothing to recentre the debate around why we need net migration to pay for the pensions for our aging population and to do the jobs that the British are unwilling to do.

In the year ending June 2023 non-EU immigration arriving for work accounted for 33%, study was 39% and humanitarian reasons was 9%. This means that the vast majority are either contributing to our society by paying taxes or paying academic institutions for courses and then spending money in the economy through living expenses.

In November 2022, 13.3% of businesses surveyed by the ONS reported experiencing a shortage of workers. The percentage of businesses experiencing a shortage of workers has been between 12.9% and 15.4% since October 2021, with the exception of August 2022, when 16.8% of businesses reported a shortage.

The industries experiencing the biggest shortage were accommodation and food services at 35%, construction at 21% and human health and social works at 19%. 

Given that the average salary in accommodation and food service is 25,522, construction 38,000 and Human health and social works is 32,194 it is strange that the Government would seek to set the minimum salary for skilled workers and for those British citizens wishing to bring spouses to the UK at 38,700, in excess of the average salaries of the three most understaffed industries.

It is clear that the Government is simply trying to pander to the xenophobic heart of middle England but all it is succeeding in doing is ensuring that our care homes remain understaffed and that British citizens who married while working abroad are now unable to return to the UK with their families.

Well done Rishi.