News story

Prime Minister sets out plans for immigration reform

Prime Minister David Cameron today gave a speech on immigration and the immigration system.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

In a speech given today at the Institute for Government, the Prime Minister said that the government would “get a grip on immigration into our country”.

Mr Cameron set out plans to:

  • change the current ‘points-based’ system
  • look again at the annual migration limit
  • criminalise the breach of Forced Marriage Prevention Orders
  • change immigration rules to help prevent Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights being abused
  • rewrite the British citizenship test to include questions on Bristish history and culture
  • identify and deport more illegal immigrants.

The speech was covered live online, bringing in comments, tweets and Facebook messages from people all over the UK.  Visit our live speech page to see what was said, people’s reactions, and some infographics that set out some of the statisics that the PM used in his speech.

The PM said that immigration was needed for a strong economy, adding:

It is right that we should attract the brightest and the best to Britain. We genuinely need foreign investors and entrepreneurs to come here.

But he also spoke of the “pressures” excessive immigration can bring:

…real pressures on our communities up and down the country. Pressures on schools, housing and healthcare, and social pressures too.

In conclusion, the Prime Minister said he wanted an immigration system where:

…the right people we need for our economy come here for genuine reasons, and join with the rest of society in making our country stronger, richer and more secure.

Published 10 October 2011