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Managed Migration

Like the Minister, I am pleased that we are holding the debate and grateful that it is in the Chamber rather than Westminster Hall because of the seriousness of the subject. I only regret that he chose to preface a serious 30-minute speech with 10 minutes of cheap and backward-looking abuse, which was worthy neither of him nor the important subject. Conservatives want this country to have a civilised and controlled immigration system. We welcome not only genuine refugees but immigrants who bring benefits to our economy and help provide the cultural diversity of modern Britain. We want debates on immigration policy to be calm and rational. We believe that, for immigration to be positive both for the hosts and the new entrants to the country, it must happen under a controlled system, in which everyone has confidence. People must know that our borders are secure, that the amount of illegal immigration is minimised and that those who are here but have no right to be here will be identified and then removed. When that happens, we will be able fully to enjoy the economic and cultural benefits of migration. Those are the challenges for the Government’s overall immigration policy. The specific challenge for the system that we are discussing today is whether it will be fair, transparent and beneficial not only to our economy but our society. Let me start with the principles behind the policy. We welcome the principle of a points-based system for economic migration. Indeed, we have called for it for some time, and, in the spirit of the new politics, I welcome the Government’s move towards Conservative territory on this matter. I hope that I do not sound churlish if I inquire politely why it took them so long. They have produced five immigration Bills in their nine years of office. None fully contained such proposals, not even the measure that we are still discussing after last Thursday’s peculiar events caused by the Government and the Whips Office. The truth is that it has taken the Government a long time—too long—to come to the conclusion that the present system simply is not working. In a Home Office paper of 2005, the Home Secretary said that"““the system we have at present works well””." In this year’s document, however, he admits that the system is not effectively targeting the migrants of most benefit to the UK, and that it is complex, subjective and bureaucratic. He is now right. The recognition of the need for a new system is an implicit recognition that the present system is failing. There are several reasons why the system needs replacing. The entry clearance officers are under impossible pressures, there are no effective controls at too many of our borders, and the sheer complexity of our system defeats many people who could benefit this country. However, the key questions, which Ministers are trying hard to evade—and to which we received no answers in the Minister’s long speech this evening—are about the effect of the new system on the number of people coming into this country. There are two basic questions. Do the Government expect the new system to lead to a rise in the number of people coming to this country? Do they want it to lead to an increase in those numbers? In 2003, the previous Home Secretary famously said that he could see ““no obvious upper limit”” to legal immigration. Is that still Government policy? The Home Secretary has been opaque on the subject in recent days, so I hope that the Ministers will be able, between them, to clear the matter up this evening. That question is absolutely central to the success or failure of a points-based system. The Government talk about managing migration, but there is all the difference in the world between asking people to form an orderly queue and then letting in anyone who wants to come, and saying that there is an upper limit to the numbers, beyond which we should not go. Which of those aims is this policy designed to achieve?