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Commonwealth Immigration Visas

I am delighted to give my right hon. Friend that absolute assurance. I was able to meet the Australian high commissioner shortly before he returned to Canberra recently. Such people are important friends of the United Kingdom; we have enormous regard for, and pay attention to, their advice and counsel. I urge my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby not to see changes to the tourist visa system in isolation from the wider changes that we are making on youth mobility, but the picture will become clearer in the next month or two when we publish relevant proposals. His second point, which I believe was the substance of his remarks, was about Commonwealth visas. Again, I welcome his comments. By publishing the Green Paper, the Government were attempting to go back to first principles and to set out a coherent story on the values and attributes that we want newcomers to sign up to if they want to become British citizens for the long term. I could not profess to have many of the answers to those questions, so I spent three or four months going around the United Kingdom to talk to people from all over the country about what values we think are important in the country, what values we want newcomers to sign up to, and what is the British deal that we want migrants to buy into if they want to make the United Kingdom their long-term home. Four values or standards were paramount across the United Kingdom: the ability to speak English to a certain level, the aptitude and attitude of hard work and paying tax, obeying the law, and making an effort to integrate with the wider community. Some values, such as those of blood and history that my hon. Friend highlighted, would not necessarily have emerged from that survey of British citizens, but there is a good argument for putting them centre stage in immigration reform, which is the point at which I should declare my second interest: I am the great-great-grandson of someone who was born in Australia—they were born in Kulpara in South Australia. My other grandparents are Irish, so I would be able to apply for Irish citizenship in due course. There is a good case for saying that when we revise the values that we want to put centre stage in immigration and citizenship reform, those values, ties and historic bonds that my hon. Friend talked about should be part of the deal. I listened carefully to what he said this afternoon. My hon. Friend the Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) was absolutely right to say that the policy dates back to 1971. If one reads Hansard reports of the debates on the Immigration Act 1971, one will see that they were contentious and, in parts, coloured by the language of race. It is true that, overwhelmingly, people who take that route to settlement are from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada—something like 80 or 90 per cent. Our ambition is to listen to the debate on the Green Paper before bringing back a comprehensive Bill to consolidate all immigration reform back to 1971. That will involve a lengthy debate in the House and in Committee, and provide an opportunity to fix a number of historical wrongs in our immigration system. However, I hope that it will also provide a chance to reinforce and ensure that the values that my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby talked about are part and parcel of the wider set of values that we have heard about from the British public, which we will seek to consolidate in the form of citizenship. As I said, this is unfinished business, and it is down to this Government to finish the job. I hope that we will be able to do so in the next 18 months.