Immigration: the lady’s not for tweaking

This is not a “tweak,” Theresa May says, on the temporary cap on tier one work visas. Neither is it exactly momentous (though one former Labour minister admitted to me the coalition had to have some sort of temporary cap to avoid a “closing-down sale” scenario).

On the bigger picture of the annual cap, the government is consulting on whether to raise English language levels for tier two work visas and look at whether work permits should be biased towards companies that are providing private health insurance for workers they want to bring into the country.

Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson says that’s “madness” as the UK competes in a globalised economy and wants to attract foreign companies who want to bring some of their workforce from abroad. Adding costs to that risks driving them away.

It was also clear in a briefing with the home secretary and her team that the government is hoping that Germany and other EU countries who opted for tight transitional arrangements on new EU member labour migration will start taking more of the strain (or benefit) of eastern European workers in the years ahead as those transitional controls on migration end.

The government is wrapped in restrictions that relate to EU law and human rights law when it comes to achieving their goal of capping immigration at net levels that match the 1990s.

Maybe that’s why although Conservatives were happy to have the notion of net migration of around 50,000 a year floating in the ether before the election, they are now dead keen to kill it off, preferring the more nebulous “tens of thousands”.