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A Tory MP had an awkward clash with a member of the public on live TV over the government’s controversial new visa rules.
The MP for South Ribble, Katherine Fletcher, brushed off concerns that one family could be split across two countries over the restrictions if the UK parent does not meet the minimum income requirements for a visa.
Fletcher instead advised UK citizen Sarah Douglas to “retrain or get a new job”.
From spring, the government will be upping the minimum income threshold for Britons to sponsor a visa for their foreign partner from £18,600 to £29,000, in a bid to reduce legal migration numbers.
It is scheduled to increase again to £38,700 in January 2025.
Right now, sponsors must earn around £3,800 extra per year to bring one child to the UK as well.
The foreign spouse’s income is not taken into account unless they earn money in the UK.
This has all sparked serious concerns for families hoping to move to the UK, as Douglas explained on BBC’s Politics Live.
The Brit currently lives in Italy and is married to an Italian with whom she has three children, but Douglas is trying to move her family back to the UK.
She noted Brexit put “a spanner in the works” for their long-term plan to send their children to school here.
Douglas explained, as a Brit herself, she could afford to either sponsor a spouse visa for her husband and leave her children in Italy, or leave her husband and move to the UK with just her children.
But she explained she was “unwilling to put my family through this hardship”.
She noted that the minimum income requirements of £38,700 is higher than the average income for the area of Scotland she wants to move to is £32,000.
Moving to the UK has therefore become “an impossible feat for my family,” she concluded, adding that her situation is “not unique”.
Fletcher replied and defended the government’s controversial decision.
She said: “Yeah I feel very much for her personal circumstances, but it’s the messages we’ve got to deliver about making sure that people who come to this country are contributing and not withdrawing from the state and the system.”
The MP continued: “It’s an opportunity for you to retrain or get a different job, or for your husband to get a job that allows you achieve the salary threshold.”
A frustrated Douglas replied that her husband’s job means he already earns more than the minimum requirement, but his salary is not considered in the visa application.
But Fletcher just repeated that his is about a larger problem of making sure the UK is not “put under pressure by people who are not contributing”.
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