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Rishi Sunak has said the higher threshold for a family visa will rise in 2025 after he came under fire from Tory MPs for rowing back on plans to introduce it next spring.
The prime minister said the government was “increasing the salary threshold significantly” to £38,700 in “early 2025” – a change from the original plan laid out by Home Secretary James Cleverly earlier this month.
The threshold for a family visa – which applies to Britons who wish to bring family members to the UK – was due to rise from £18,600 to £38,700 next spring in a bid to reduce legal net migration, which hit a record high last year.
But on Thursday night the Home Office quietly watered down the measure, saying the threshold would first be raised to £29,000 from the spring, and then increased in “incremental stages” – though no timetable was set for when the top figure would be introduced.
Tory MPs on the right of the party immediately criticised the change, with David Jones, deputy chairman of the right-wing European Research Group, telling the PA news agency it was a “regrettable sign of weakness” while Jonathan Gullis, a Conservative former minister wrote on X that it was “deeply disappointing and undermines our efforts”.
Robert Jenrick, who quit as immigration minister over the government’s stalled Rwanda plan, was also among the critics, with a source close to him saying: “The whole package needs to be implemented now, not long-grassed to the spring or watered down. More measures are needed, not less.”
Speaking to reporters while visiting ambulance workers in Lincolnshire, the prime minister insisted the government was doing “exactly as we said” in terms of raising the salary threshold for a family visa, but that the process would happen in “two stages”.
He confirmed that the threshold would increase from £18,600 to £29,000 from next spring before going to the “full amount” in early 2025.
“So it’s exactly what we said we’re doing, we’re just phasing it over the next year or so,” he added.
Earlier this month Mr Cleverly outlined a five-point plan to reduce legal migration after net…
