The new British coalition government has been forced to water down its flagship plan to cap immigration following a revolt in the Cabinet, a media report said on Sunday. Under the terms of the temporary cap, just 24,100 workers from outside the EU will be let into the country between now and April 2011.
Under the revised scheme, executives from multinational companies and other highly paid foreigners will be exempt from the strict limits being placed on economic migrants. Home secretary Theresa May will on Monday announce a temporary cap on workers entering Britain from outside the European Union, pending a full review of the system. “The first draft of the plan was highly bureaucratic and would have swaddled businesses in more regulation,” a Cabinet source told the Sunday Times.
“But we are now satisfied that companies that want to move senior managers to this country will not in practice be hit by the cap,” the source said.
May’s plans first came in for criticism from Cabinet ministers, including Michael Gove, the education secretary, and David Willetts, the universities minister at a ministerial meeting on Wednesday.
Business secretary Vince Cable made it clear that he shared the concerns of Cabinet colleagues. He said the “government’s objective is to reduce regulation and make it easier for business to operate.” —PTI