Companies to pay more skills charge

Britain’s ruling Conservative Party has pledged to double the amount that companies must pay to employ migrant workers should it be re-elected, and said it would “continue to bear down on immigration from outside the European Union”.

In its manifesto published on Thursday, in which much attention was given to Britain’s immigration regime and the party’s pledge to substantially reduce net migration, the party said the immigration skills charge levied on companies employing migrant workers would rise to £2,000 a year by the end of the next Parliament, with the revenues raised going towards a programme to help skill workers in the U.K.

“Skilled immigration should not be a way for government or business to avoid their obligations to improve the skills of the British workforce,” said the manifesto, which pledged to reduce annual net immigration to “sustainable levels”, from the hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands a year.

It will also raise the earnings threshold for people who wished to bring in non-EU spouses from outside the EU and will continue to toughen the visa requirements for students to maintain high standards.

“We will expect students to leave the country at the end of their course unless they meet new, higher requirements that allow them to work in Britain after their studies have concluded,” International students will remain in the immigration numbers. Migrants — workers and students — will also be subject to a higher Immigration Health Surcharges for using the NHS.

The government’s determination to maintain its tough stance of immigration was a significant plank of a manifesto that sought to focus on building a “strong and stable” nation, a phrase that has been at the heart of the party’s electoral campaign since it kicked off last month. “Now more than ever, Britain needs a strong and stable government to get the best Brexit deal for our country and its people,” Prime Minister Theresa May wrote in a forward to the manifesto, which also pledged that the government would seek free trade deals round the world.

The strong stance on immigration is in contrast with the Labour and the Liberal Democrats who have pledged to reform the immigration system, including by taking foreign students out of the immigration statistics.