It was “enough is enough” for James Cleverly as he announced plans that he said would bring about the biggest drop in net migration ever, after it reached a record high.

International care workers will not be able to bring family members with them, according to the Home Secretary. Also, the minimum wage for skilled workers will be raised to £38,700. He said that the plan, along with earlier ones to limit the families of foreign students, would lower the number by 300,000. This comes as Tory MPs put pressure on Rishi Sunak.

On Monday, Mr. Cleverly laid out the plans after the government said that the number of people had reached its highest point, 745,000, in 2022.

“That’s enough.” “We are stopping people from abusing the health care visa,” he told the Commons.

“We are increasing thresholds, cutting the SOL (shortage occupation list) discount, increasing family income requirements and cutting the number of student dependants.”

Mr. Cleverly said he would follow what he called a five-point plan:

• Health and care workers shouldn’t bring their dependents;
• Raise the minimum pay for skilled workers by a third, to £38,700, which is the average full-time wage;

Stop “cut-price” work by changing the shortage occupation list and making it illegal for shortage occupations to pay 20% less than the going rate; from next spring, raise the minimum income for family visas from £26,200 to £38,700; and

• To stop abuse, make sure the Migration Advisory Committee looks over the graduate immigration path.

He also said that the government would raise the health tax by 66% this year, from £624 to £1,035. As Mr. Cleverly fights to lower overall numbers, he said that about 120,000 dependents went with 100,000 care workers in the year ending in September. With the plan and changes for foreign students, he said, “net migration will drop by the most ever.”

He said that it would mean that about 300,000 fewer people would come to Britain each year after this.

The head of Unison, Christina McAnea, said that the “cruel plans spell total disaster for the NHS and social care.”

“Workers from other countries were told to come here because both of these industries are desperately short of staff.” “Hospitals and nursing homes would not be able to work without them,” she said.

The pay rise is less than the £40,000 deal the Prime Minister is said to have made with his fired home secretary Suella Braverman in order to get her to back him as leader of the Conservative Party.

Two Whitehall sources said that Mrs. Braverman and Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, had pushed for the cap to be raised to £45,000 behind closed doors.

Conservative MPs have been putting more and more pressure on Mr. Sunak since the Office for National Statistics (ONS) changed its net migration number to show that 745,000 people will move to the UK in 2022, which is a record high.

The number for the year ending in June 2023 is thought to have been a little lower, at 672,000, when the difference between the number of people coming into the country and those leaving is taken into account.

The Prime Minister has tried to put the “very large numbers” on the people who came before him, saying that he “inherited” the amounts.

Even though the Tories’ 2019 election platform promised to lower general numbers, they are now three times higher than they were before Brexit.

He also has to work hard to keep his promise to “stop the boats” crossing the Channel, even though the Supreme Court ruled that his most important policy on refuge was illegal. This week, Mr. Cleverly is set to go to Kigali to finalise a new treaty with Rwanda. Ministers hope that this will help persuade courts that the treaty is not illegal.

No. 10 said they were still working “urgently” to get the deal done and make the “emergency” laws that were promised after the last month’s court case.

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