Ministers are under intense pressure to slash legal migration numbers (Image: Getty)
Labour will “open our borders” despite growing evidence that net migration is finally falling, James Cleverly has warned.
New Home Office figures revealed that the outgoing Conservative government granted 546,774 work visas in the year to June 2024 - up marginally from 538,222 in 2023.
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The number of health and social care visas – dubbed a backdoor route into Britain – fell by 26 per cent year-on-year to 89,085, with a sharp drop of 81% in the period of April to June coinciding with a ban on dependants.
Analysts predicted reforms introduced under Rishi Sunak’s Government will lead to a fall in net migration, which had hit record highs.
But there is growing concern over evidence of “chain migration” – where foreign nationals later bring their loved ones with them – because the number of family visas being issued has shot up by 35%.
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James Cleverly and Rishi Sunak introduced changes to slash net migration (Image: Getty)
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly MP said: "The actions I took as Home Secretary are working.
"I reformed visas and cut net migration. I was tackling the people smugglers and deterring the crossings, leading to fewer small boat arrivals and fewer asylum applications.
“And the extra resource I put into the system meant more decisions, cutting the backlog, lower grant rate, and more returns.
“That's the inheritance I left Labour. But they’re undoing all of this progress. They have ditched our deterrent, have no clear plan to smash the gangs, have nowhere to send failed asylum seekers who they can't return, have failed to hire anyone to run their phantom border command, and are already planning to roll over for the EU and open our borders."
Mr Cleverly, in a series of tough reforms announced in December, banned overseas care workers and foreign students from bringing their family members with them to the UK.
The salary threshold for skilled workers was also increased to ￡38,700.
The previous government aimed to slash the number of people arriving in Britain by 300,000 a year with the measures.
The Home Office previously said it will be "necessary to await the peak in student applications for the next academic year", which usually comes between July and September, before it will be possible to see the "full effect of recent policy changes and any other impacts".
Dr Ben Brindle, researcher at the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory, said: "Visa numbers dropped in the last few months of the Conservative government and emigration has also been rising. In theory, this should mean a decline in net migration over the coming year.
Keir Starmer looks set to benefit from Tory immigration reforms (Image: Getty)
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"But the precise scale of it is hard to predict: we don't yet know how many of the recent student arrivals will remain in the UK long term, and any bounce-back in health and care visas would also slow the decline.
"Nonetheless, the strong indication is that Labour will be able to meet its commitment to reduce net migration from the unusually high levels the UK has recently seen, primarily due to trends that were already in train well before they were elected.
"There has been a lot of speculation about the impacts of a decline in student numbers on the university sector in the UK. It's too early to say how big the decline this year will be, as most students apply for their visas over the summer.”
Some 546,774 work visas were granted, up slightly from 538,222 in the year to June 2023, along with 530,496 study visas (down from 656,589) and 84,403 family visas (up from 75,131), plus 4,007 visas for dependants joining or accompanying others (down from 5,167).
Karl Williams, Research Director at the Centre for Policy Studies, warned of “accelerating chain migration”, with an increase in family visas being issued and visa extensions up by 43 per cent.
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Mr Williams told the Daily Express: “While the latest Home Office figures show the overall number of visas coming down from record highs, the second quarter of this year saw a 35% increase in family visas compared to the same period in 2023.
“Many of these visas will be for relatives of people who have crossed the channel in the small boats and been granted asylum - as is clear from the large increase in family visas to Iranian and Eritrean nationals, for instance.
“This is just one example of how our immigration system is not geared towards the high-skilled immigration that people actually want, and that there are sadly still strong incentives to attempt the illegal and dangerous channel crossing.”