Prime Minister talks immigration in Shoreditch

In a speech delivered in Shoreditch Town Hall earlier today, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the the Government is transforming the way it deals with immigration through its “controlled and fair” points-based system.

The Prime Minister said that under the points-based system, unskilled migrant workers from outside the European Union will not be allowed into the UK, because there is less need for their services.

He also said better training of British nationals would be able to tackle the skills shortages that have led to posts being filled by migrants.

The Prime Minister said, “The system we have introduced gives us the ability to secure the skills we need and to secure our borders against those who are not welcome here.

“And I believe the responsible way to debate migration … is to debate how we can use this system over the coming years to continue to control migration fairly, to reduce the overall need for migration, while continuing to attract the key people who will make the biggest contribution to the growth of our economy.”

He also announced that two of the professions which have attracted most non-EU nationals – chefs and care workers – are to be removed from the shortage list by 2012 and 2014 respectively.

Mr Brown also pointed out that asylum claims were back to the levels of the early 1990s, and said that recent provisional figures suggest net inward migration has fallen from 170,000 in 2007 to 147,000 in 2009.