Thinktank says UK immigration cap is unworkable
March 29 2010 by Liam Clifford
The Conservative Party’s election pledge to set an annual UK immigration cap, contingent upon the requirements of the economy, has been called an “unworkable policy” by an independent think tank.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
said an annual cap would be "very difficult to achieve" as the economy starts to
recover. In 2008, approximately 160,000 immigrants secured UK work visas. By
contrast, David Cameron has said immigration should be in the "tens of thousands
rather than hundreds of thousands".
The Cross-Party Group on Balanced
Migration has proposed a cap of 40,000 – a figure which the IPPR warns would
damage the economy as fewer firms would be able to attract talented foreigners
to work in the UK. A cap would also threaten the rights of British nationals and
migrants settled in the UK to be with their families.
David Cameron told
BBC One's The Politics Show: "I think we need to set the cap each year according
to the needs of the economy. That's not something you can do in advance. The
reason for capping immigration in my view is there have been pressures in the
last decade on services like health and education and housing so the cap should
be set after a conversation with the local authorities and the health service
and the rest of it to try and make sure that UK immigration is more manageable than
what it's been up to now."
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