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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2024
On 4 December, the Home Secretary unveiled a new package of measures to reduce immigration – a matter of great interest to faith communities, given that some of them depend fairly heavily on clergy and lay-workers from overseas to sustain their pastoral ministries. One of the elements in his statement to the Commons was a decision to ‘increase the skilled worker earnings threshold by a third to £38,700 from next spring, in line with the median full-time wage for those kinds of jobs’ and to raise the minimum income for family visas ‘to the same threshold as the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers, which is £38,700’.1
1 HC Deb (2023–24), vol 741, cols 41–43.
2 See <https://www.gov.uk/minister-of-religion-visa>; all references to websites in this Comment article were last accessed on 5 January 2024.
3 HL Deb (2023–24), vol 834, col 1463.
4 UIN 5718, tabled on 6 December 2023, <https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-12-06/5718>.
5 UIN HL991, tabled on 7 December 2023, <https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-12-07/hl991>.
6 UIN HL987, tabled on 7 December 2023, <https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-12-07/HL987> (emphasis added).
7 Home Office, ‘Legal migration statement: estimated immigration impacts (accessible)’, 21 December 2023, para 49, <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/legal-migration-statement-estimated-immigration-impacts/legal-migration-statement-estimated-immigration-impacts-accessible>.
8 Home Office, ‘Fact sheet on net migration measures – further detail’, 21 December 2023, <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/fact-sheet-on-net-migration-measures-further-detail>.
9 Ibid.
10 BBC News 22 December, ‘New £38,700 visa rule will be introduced in early 2025, says Rishi Sunak’, <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67801167>.
11 M Dathan and F Hamilton, ‘New visa rules will ruin relationships, Rishi Sunak told’ (The Times, 5 December 2023).
12 M Dathan, ‘Sunak climbs down on income threshold for spouse visas’ (The Times, 21 December 2023).
13 P Walker, ‘“Sign of weakness”: Home Office U-turn on visa salary threshold divides Tories’ (The Guardian, 22 December 2023).
14 The Prime Minister announced on 4 January 2024 that his ‘working assumption’ was that the Election would be held ‘in the second half of this year’: C Smyth, ‘Rishi Sunak suggests general election will be held in second half of year’ (The Times, 4 January 2024).