Skilled migrants will need degrees to come to UK

Telegraph

10-05-2025

Skilled foreign workers will be required to have a degree to get a job in the UK under new laws to reduce net migration.
Sir Keir Starmer is proposing to return the threshold for skilled foreign workers to graduate level after that was scrapped by Boris Johnson and replaced with a points-based immigration system requiring only the equivalent of an A-level and based on salaries.
Under the new laws, to be announced on Monday, employers will still be allowed to recruit lower-skilled workers using the points-based system – but only if they are in critical sectors such as IT, construction and engineering. These areas are deemed by the Government to be suffering shortages that are damaging the economy.
Employers will only be allowed to hire overseas workers on a temporary, time-limited basis, and will have to demonstrate to a new Government body that they are training British workers through apprenticeships and other schemes to plug the skills gaps.
Writing for The Telegraph, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said the new system would be underpinned by 'five core principals'.
'First, migration must come down so the system is properly managed and controlled,' she said. 'Second, the immigration system must be linked to skills and training requirements here in the UK, so that no industry is allowed to rely on immigration to fill its skills shortages.
'Third, the system must be fair and effective, with clearer rules agreed by Parliament in areas like respect for family life, to prevent confusion or perverse outcomes.
'Fourth, the rules must be respected and enforced – from our crackdown on illegal working to the deportation of foreign criminals. Finally, the system must support integration and community cohesion.
'These changes are essential to end the chaos left by the Tories in the immigration system, and to regain control.'
Employers in sectors with labour shortages will face being stripped of their visa-sponsor licence, which is needed to hire someone from outside the UK, if they fail to show they are investing in training the domestic workforce.
Bad bosses who break employment law – for example by failing to pay their staff the minimum wage – will also be banned from hiring workers from abroad.
The plans will be set out in a long-awaited immigration white paper on Monday, which aims to fulfil Labour's manifesto pledge to significantly reduce net migration. Net migration stood at 728,000 in the 12 months to last June.
The reforms are part of the Prime Minister's attempts to combat the rise of Reform UK, which inflicted big losses on Labour in this month's local elections. This was partly blamed on a failure to tackle immigration.
Labour ministers will accuse the Tories of presiding over an influx of lower skilled workers that pushed up net migration to a record 906,000 in the year ending June 2023.
Figures published on Sunday have shown that the proportion of skilled worker visas below graduate level increased from 10 per cent in 2021 to around 50 per cent in 2024.
Labour will not, however, set a target on how far it will bring down net migration. Forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility project that it would settle at 340,000, well above pre-Brexit levels, without further significant action.
'White paper is a white flag'
On Sunday night, the Tories said Labour's migration white paper was a 'white flag'.
Chris Philp MP, the shadow home secretary, said: 'Fixing Britain's migration crisis requires a new radical approach. Labour had the opportunity to do this and have failed.
'The 88 per cent fall in student dependents and 84 per cent drop in social care visas didn't happen due to Labour, they happened because of tough Conservative policies. We planned to go further by raising the family salary threshold, but Labour scrapped it.
'Labour ditched our plan to raise the family salary threshold, gutted enforcement powers, and now they're boasting about returns built entirely on the back of Conservative groundwork. It's utterly shameless.
'If Labour were serious about immigration, they'd back our binding immigration cap and back our plan to repeal the entire Human Rights Act from immigration matters. But they have got no grip, no guts, and no plan. This white paper is a white flag.'
Net migration figures to be published by the Office for National Statistics on May 22 are expected to show it continued to fall in the last six months of 2024 after the Tories raised the skilled worker salary level from £26,200 to £38,700 and barred students and health and care workers from bringing in dependents.
By raising the skills threshold to the higher 'RQF6' graduate level, Labour claimed it would be reflected in higher salary thresholds, although the Home Office said the levels were 'yet to be determined'.
Under the pre-Brexit immigration system, non-EU citizens could only come to the UK to work in graduate jobs that had a salary of at least £30,000. Last year, Government advisers suggested a graduate job would be worth between £30,000 and £40,000, while the average graduate starting salary is currently £35,170.
New body to determine skills shortages
The white paper is also expected to include restrictions that will force foreign graduates to leave the UK unless they get a graduate-level job, based on skill levels rather than salary.
The Government's migration advisory committee estimated that 150,000 foreign students progressed onto the graduate visa in the UK last year and that this contributed to 10 per cent of total net migration.
The visa allows foreign graduates to remain for two years, or three years for those completing a PhD, without having to find a job, raising concerns it has become a backdoor route to permanent residency in the UK.
Labour will set up a new body, the Labour Market Evidence Group (LMEG), to determine where there are skills shortages that would allow companies to recruit foreign workers below the graduate skill levels on a 'strictly time-limited' basis. The group will include officials from Government departments, the migration advisory committee and skills bodies.
Any company seeking to recruit from abroad will have to convince the LMEG that overseas staff are necessary to plug skills shortages and that they have a strategy of training and apprenticeships for domestic UK workers.
A new 'temporary shortage list', replacing the current salary list, will be established to provide time-limited access – with a period to determined – to the points-based immigration system.
Employers will still be subject to the points system salary thresholds, which stipulate that they pay a minimum of £38,700 or down to £30,960 for occupations suffering shortages.
Sectors will only be added to the list if they are key to the Government's industrial strategy, are delivering critical infrastructure and have domestic training plans.
Higher standards of English required
Health and care jobs will continue to be treated separately according to nationally agreed pay scales with in-country recruitment prioritised. Most health and care jobs are subject to minimum salaries of £29,000 or £23,200 for care workers.
The white paper will set out plans for all migrants to have higher standards of English and may require this for them to secure indefinite leave to remain after five years of residency. It means migrants could be forced to wait up to a decade for permanent residency if they fail to meet new conditions including financial status.
It will also propose a law change to create a new 'common sense' legal framework for immigration judges to prevent illegal migrants and foreign criminals avoiding deportation by exploiting the European Convention Human Rights (ECHR) article eight, which protects rights to a family life.
It is designed to stamp out the 'ad hoc' decisions of judges where human rights have trumped public interest or safety, and which have been exposed over the past three months by The Telegraph.