Yvette Cooper tells Sky News the government is trying to implement a “substantial reduction” in the number of people coming to the UK.
One of the means of doing this is by restricting who can come to the UK on graduate visas, as well as who can come to work in the care sector.
The home secretary indicates the government will close the care worker visa route for overseas recruitment.
Speaking on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, she says: “We’re going to introduce new restrictions on lower-skilled workers, so new visa controls, because we think actually what we should be doing is concentrating on the higher-skilled migration, and we should be concentrating on training in the UK.
“New requirements to train here in the UK to make sure that the UK workforce benefits, and, also, we will be closing the care worker visa for overseas recruitment.”
Pushed on what this will mean in terms of numbers, Cooper adds: “We’re introducing much tighter rules.
“So, if you’re doing less than a graduate job, then you won’t be included under the skilled worker visa, unless it’s for a temporary shortage occupation.
“Then there will be new workforce strategies, new requirements to train here in the UK.
“Those changes, the combination – just those low skilled visa changes and the care worker changes…
“Together, that is a reduction of probably in the region of up to 50,000 low-skilled worker visas, a reduction in the course of this year alone.”
But Cooper says the government’s immigration reforms won’t include a target number for net migration.
“The Conservatives did set out multiple targets, broken promises, all of them were broken. So, we’re not going to do that”, she adds.
