Boris Johnson’s newly formed cabinet has agreed to implement restrictions on low-skilled workers coming into Britain from January 2021.
During their first meeting on Friday morning, ministers signed off plans for a points-based immigration system designed to prioritise people with the most economically valuable skills.
A Downing Street spokesman said the new system would “end reliance on importing cheap, low-skilled labour” and bring down immigration numbers “overall”.
Further details on how the government will ensure a fall in overall migration will be laid out in an immigration paper next week. The spokesman said Mr Johnson had been “very clear that he wants to see low-skilled migration fall”.
Employers fear the introduction of the government’s plans — which it says are broadly modelled on Australia’s points based immigration system — could lead to skills shortages in important industries.
They are particularly concerned that it could make it much harder to employ EU workers in relatively low-skilled sectors, including agriculture, construction, food processing and social care.
The immigration white paper, published in 2018 when Theresa May was prime minister, had proposed a two-year “time-limited route for temporary short-term workers” to come to the UK in response to pressure from employers.
Speaking on Friday, a Downing Street spokesman said: “Following discussion, Cabinet agreed the implementation of a points-based immigration system from January 1, 2021.
“The system will be simpler and fairer and will not discriminate between countries and would return democratic control of immigration to the British people.
“The PM stressed that we must demonstrate that the UK is open and welcoming to talent from across the world but the new system would end reliance on importing cheap, low-skilled labour — bringing down immigration numbers overall.”
As part of the new system, the government is expected to drop plans for a salary threshold of £30,000 for applicants.
The government’s immigration advisers, the Migration Advisory Committee, recommended last month that the UK should slash the main salary threshold for workers coming to Britain with a job offer to £25,600 per year after the post-Brexit transition period.
Alan Manning, chairman of the MAC, also said that while it would be possible to introduce a points-based system that allowed people with significant potential but no job offer to apply to come to the UK, the committee had struggled to understand what the government meant by “Australian-style, points-based” system and suggested the idea was little more than a slogan.
