Steve Valdez-Symonds, refugee and migrant rights programme director, said:
“Sadly, this latest development does not appear to signal any new or firm
commitment to encourage equality of opportunity through the UK’s immigration
system or to respect the rights and human dignity of all women, men and children
regardless of class or colour.”
However, Migration Watch UK, which campaigns for tighter immigration control,
said the move would reduce the incentive for employers to train British workers.
The £35,800 salary threshold was introduced in 2011 by Theresa May when she was
home secretary as part of the effort to meet targets on restricting net migration set
by David Cameron, which the government was never able to achieve.
Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, which identified the change in the 507page rulebook, said it was “the final nail in the coffin of the net migration target”.
Deputy director Rob McNeill told the Daily Telegraph: “They are acknowledging that
the bluntest of all the instruments the government used to get to that target of tens
of thousands has been kicked into touch.”
Before the 2019 general election in December, Johnson reprised the core message of
Vote Leave’s 2016 EU referendum campaign and said that EU migrants have been
able to “treat the UK as if it’s part of their own country” for too long.
He guaranteed that migration would fall under his plans after the UK left the EU as
he sought to appeal to undecided Eurosceptic voters in Labour marginals.
The Home Office did not comment.
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