The Reader: Patel must do more than points-based migration

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Work to do: Priti Patel
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30 July 2019
WEST END FINAL

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I want to congratulate Priti Patel on becoming our new Home Secretary. The question that forms the basis of my letter focuses on the promise made by Boris Johnson to overhaul our immigration systems by introducing the Australian points-based version.

Thus the key question is — would a points-based system actually mean points-based under her watch as the Home Secretary?

I have a number of further questions for Ms Patel. Would the fetters placed by Theresa May’s government, on the ability of UK universities to recruit international students freely, be removed?

Would she consider reducing visa fees ASAP in order to boost international student numbers once again and compete with universities in Australia, Canada and the US?

Finally, would she see the wisdom of supporting the Government’s need for funds by using the education sector to turbo-charge the UK economy?
Bola Makinde​
Conservative Party member

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Bola

The shape of the Government’s future immigration policy remains unknown but it already seems likely that the new Prime Minister will adopt a more relaxed approach than his predecessor, with his talk of an amnesty for long-term overstayers and his decision to abandon the “below 100,000” net migration target that Theresa May found so undeliverable.

A points-based system — which Priti Patel has ordered her advisers to assess — could come as part of this package in line with the Government’s proclaimed desire to attract the “brightest and best” to these shores. That sounds appealing enough but a critical issue will be the generosity or otherwise of any future threshold for entitlement to a visa. What happens to low-skilled migrants who today fill many vital roles but whose admission would be curbed by a focus on qualifications alone? All is therefore still to play for — and you will not be alone in seeking answers to your questions.

Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor

ERG’s hands are tied on May deal

YOU write that the ERG is divided over whether its 60 to 80 members would accept Theresa May’s Brexit deal if the Irish backstop were neutralised [“Spartans’ leader Baker warns Johnson: Don’t try to betray us”, July 26].

Although Steve Baker — one of the ERG’s disgruntled MPs now on the backbenches after turning down a job in the Government — says he would vote against any attempt to revive Theresa May’s agreement, and although others threaten the ERG would declare parliamentary warfare, I do not believe they would have another opportunity to bring down the Prime Minister.

In fact, Boris Johnson now has the edge over the ERG and is most likely to call a general election before the Spartans could bring him down. The ERG’s hands are tied and it can only wait on events rather than pursue “parliamentary warfare”.

In addition, would the ERG members remain united and not accept a different form of May’s deal, with some tinkering to the Irish backstop?
Linda Green

We’re losing faith in democracy

THE good humour and complete absence of trouble on People’s Vote marches will not survive the kind of Brexit now being threatened.

We will never accept the loss of the guaranteed rights and freedoms we get from EU membership in order for US food standards and the like to be imposed on us.

We hear about “loss of trust in democracy” (code, I believe, for splitting the Conservative and Unionist Party), but a no-deal Brexit, or anything like it, will shatter faith in democracy as never before when the inevitable results become apparent.

Politicians should be very clear about this.
Alan Pavelin

Naked truth, guys: topless is not hot

I AGREE with Nick Curtis, who wrote about what men should wear in a heatwave, and I disagree with John Moysen, who took issue with him [“Summer’s hottest look: the shroud”, July 26]. May I include the biggest sin of them all, though: sauntering around town stripped to the waist.

Take a leaf out of Italian men’s style — always cool and relaxed. I won’t start on the faux pas that British women make in hot weather — too much flesh and the dreaded Crocs or flip-flops.
Sandra Granditer

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