Archbishop of Canterbury launches fresh salvo at ministers over migration with Justin Welby lashing out at toughened visa rules by warning they will have a ‘negative impact’ on marriages and families
The Archbishop of Canterbury today launched a fresh salvo at ministers over migration as he lashed out at the Government’s toughening of family visa rules.
The Most Rev Justin Welby attacked a recent announcement that the minimum income level for family visas will rise to £38,700 from next Spring.
The move is part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s new five-point plan for slashing record net migration numbers.
But it has prompted claims that poorer Britons will no longer be able to live together with their foreign spouses in the UK.
The new threshold will be more than double the current income level of £18,600.
Speaking in the House of Lords this morning, the Archbishop warned the new family visa rules will have a ‘negative impact’ on married and family relationships.
The Most Rev Justin Welby attacked a recent announcement that the minimum income level for family visas will rise to £38,700 from next Spring
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this week announced a new five-point plan for slashing record net migration numbers
Net migration hit a record 745,000 in 2022, although it is estimated to have fallen to 672,000 in the year to June 2023
His latest intervention against the Government’s migration policies came as he laid out how ministers can promote the ‘flourishing’ of families and households.
‘The first is ensuring that whenever a policy is created in any Government department, its impact on families and households is considered and acted upon,’ he told the Lords.
‘Does it enable the bonds of love within the family and the household to flourish? Does it support and strengthen relationships?
‘This week we hear that many people in this country will be prevented from living together with their spouse, child or children… as a result of a big increase in the minimum income requirement for family visas.
‘The Government is rightly concerned with bringing down the legal migration figures and I’m not, you’ll be relieved to know, going into the politics of that.
‘But there is a cost to be paid in terms of the negative impact this will have on married and family relationships for those who live and work and contribute to our life together, particularly in social care.’
The Archbishop has become a frequent critic of the Government over migration and has previously blasted the PM’s ‘immoral’ approach to tackling illegal migration.
He has also claimed ministers’ plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is ‘against the judgment of God’.
Mr Sunak is under intense pressure from Tory MPs to clampdown on both illegal and legal migration to Britain.
As well as trying to salvage the Rwanda scheme from a legal block by the Supreme Court, the PM is also taking new action to try and reduce legal migration.
Net migration hit a record 745,000 in 2022, although it is estimated to have fallen to 672,000 in the year to June 2023.
Under new plans announced this week, the Government is removing the ability for overseas care workers to bring dependants with them to the UK.
They are also raising the minimum earnings for a skilled worker visa to £38,700, scrapping a 20 per cent discount on minimum salary levels for ‘shortage occupations’, and toughening family visa rules.
In action previously announced in May, most overseas students will also be banned from bringing family members to the UK.
It has been claimed that hiking the minimum income level for family visas to £38,700 would mean three-quarters of Britons are too poor to marry a foreigner, if they wished to live together in the UK.
Median gross annual earnings for full-time employees in the UK was £34,963 in April 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It has been pointed out how senior Government figures – including Mr Sunak himself and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt – all married foreign spouses.
Downing Street this week defended the measure and insisted Britons earning less than £38,700 may still live with foreign spouses in the UK in ‘exceptional circumstances’.
The Archbishop’s comments came during the annual debate he leads in the Lords, with this year’s topic ‘Love Matters’, The Report Of The Archbishops’ Commission On Families and Households.
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