The Conservative Party has announced plans to push for higher salary thresholds on all work visas, proposing an increase to £38,700. They intend to introduce these changes as amendments to the government’s immigration bill currently under parliamentary review.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp emphasized the party’s commitment to ending what he described as the “era of mass migration.”
Additionally, the Conservatives are calling for stricter marriage visa regulations. Under their proposal, immigrants would only be allowed to bring their partners to the UK if they have been married for at least two years, are both at least 23 years old, and are not first cousins.
Responding, a Home Office spokesperson said: “The Tories had 14 years to reform immigration and asylum, yet they left a system in chaos and our borders weaker.”
Since April 2024, the minimum salary requirement for work visa applicants has been raised to £38,700—a nearly 50% increase from the previous threshold of £26,200. However, exemptions apply to certain professions, including those in health and social care.
The previous Conservative government initially planned to raise the salary threshold for sponsoring family members to £38,700 but later revised it to £29,000.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp stated that the Conservatives had intended to implement the £38,700 threshold for UK-based immigrants seeking to bring a foreign spouse but alleged that Labour had suspended the policy.
Too many people arriving on work visas end up in minimum wage jobs, Philp told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, so a new focus should be on “a much smaller number of very high-skilled migrants, rather than mass low-skilled migration”.
“For 20 or 30 years now, we’ve seen huge numbers arriving in the UK, often coming to work on low wages and in low-skilled jobs and it’s time, we think, that ends,” he said.
“We think actually it’s bad for the taxpayer, because recent OBR analysis shows that people coming here on lower wages actually cost the general taxpayer money because they consume more in services than they pay in tax.
“It obviously puts pressure on public services, and in some cases, can undermine social cohesion as well.”
During the initial debate on the bill, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill would be effective, unlike the Conservatives’ plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, which Labour ditched as “a failed gimmick”.
The Border Security Bill sets out Labour’s plan to treat people smugglers like terrorists and repeals most of the Conservative’s Illegal Migration Act 2023, which laid the legal groundwork for the Rwanda policy.
A Home Office spokesperson pointed out that the Conservatives had the opportunity to introduce all the measures they’re now suggesting during the party’s 14 years in government “including the three they passed whilst Chris Philp was a Home Office minister”.
“The Labour government is getting a grip on the system,” they said.
“As part of our Plan for Change, Labour’s Border Security Bill will bring in counter-terror style powers to disrupt the criminal smuggling gangs making millions out of small boat crossings, as well as ensuring police and immigration officers have the powers they need to act where anyone poses a public safety threat.
“As with all proposed amendments to government bills, these will be examined as part of the Parliamentary process.”]