EU referendum and repeal of Human Rights Act coming as Conservatives win majority

Following the Conservative victory in yesterday's general election, you can read the section on immigration from the Conservative manifesto below (as originally published here in April).

The Conservatives say they recognise the "real benefits" immigration brings to Britain and they "will always be a party that is open, outward-looking and welcoming to people from all around the world," but the manifesto repeats the ambition to see net migration fall to the tens of thousands.

With an in-out referendum on the EU promised by the end of 2017, the Conservatives say they will seek reform of the EU and the manifesto puts "tough new welfare conditions and robust enforcement" at the heart of its pledges on immigration.

The manifesto says of the reforms Britain will seek from the EU: "Changes to welfare to cut EU migration will be an absolute requirement in the renegotiation ... We will insist that EU migrants who want to claim tax credits and child benefit must live here and contribute to our country for a minimum of four years."

In continues: "We will negotiate with the EU to introduce stronger powers to deport criminals and stop them coming back, and tougher and longer re-entry bans for all those who abuse free movement. We want to toughen requirements for non-EU spouses to join EU citizens, including with an income threshold and English language test."

In addition, the Conservatives have pledged to repeal "Labour's human rights laws".

"The next Conservative Government will scrap the Human Rights Act, and introduce a British Bill of Rights. This will break the formal link between British courts and the European Court of Human Rights, and make our own Supreme Court the ultimate arbiter of human rights matters in the UK," the manifesto states.

The Telegraph said last year of the proposed British Bill of Rights: "The provisions of the European Convention will remain intact, but codicils will be attached that set out their proper scope – tests of territoriality and triviality intended to end the most blatant abuses. On top of this, sovereignty and supremacy will be returned to Parliament: not only will lawmakers be able to update the codicils as needed, but the Court’s rulings will become advisory rather than compulsory."

Writing in a Guardian comment piece, Conor Gearty, a professor of human rights law at the LSE, called the Bill "incoherent" and "an empty rallying cry for English nationalism," and said he believes it "will only increase the number of cases that go to Strasbourg." For the Telegraph, it will "return human rights law to its original noble purpose."

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission has said a Bill of Rights "should not water down any human rights protection contained in the Human Rights Act" and said it "would not support a reversal of the leading global role Britain has long played in protecting and promoting human rights nor the reduction in the protections we all currently enjoy under the Human Rights Act."

RightsInfo has more on what the Conservative victory might mean for human rights here.

For more details on the proposed British Bill of Rights, see the Conservatives' publication from last October here.

The Conservative manifesto adds: "We will continue the £375 million modernisation of our courts system, reducing delay and frustration for the public. And we will continue to review our legal aid systems, so they can continue to provide access to justice in an efficient way."

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THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY MANIFESTO 2015

[...]

Controlled immigration that benefits Britain

Our commitment to you:

Our plan to control immigration will put you, your family and the British people first. We will reduce the number of people coming to our country with tough new welfare conditions and robust enforcement. We will:

• keep our ambition of delivering annual net migration in the tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands
• control migration from the European Union, by reforming welfare rules
• clamp down on illegal immigration and abuse of the Minimum Wage
• enhance our border security and strengthen the enforcement of immigration rules
• develop a fund to ease pressure on local areas and public services.

Conservatives believe in controlled immigration, not mass immigration. Immigration brings real benefits to Britain – to our economy, our culture and our national life. We will always be a party that is open, outward-looking and welcoming to people from all around the world. We also know that immigration must be controlled. When immigration is out of control, it puts pressure on schools, hospitals and transport; and it can cause social pressures if communities find it hard to integrate.

Between 1997 and 2009, under the last Labour Government, we had the largest influx of people Britain had ever seen. Their open borders policy, combined with their failure to reform welfare, meant that for years over 90 percent of employment growth in this country was accounted for by foreign nationals – even though there were 1.4 million people who spent most of the 2000s living on out-of-work benefits. For the past five years, we have been working to turn around the situation we inherited.

Since 2010, we have stripped more than 850 bogus colleges of their rights to sponsor foreign students; installed proper exit checks at our borders; cracked down on illegal working and sham marriages; made it harder for people to live in the UK illegally, by restricting their access to bank accounts, driving licences and private housing; and reduced the number of appeal routes to stop people clogging up our courts with spurious attempts to remain in the country. All of this has made a difference. Immigration from outside the EU has come down since 2010.

We have seen many more people from the EU coming to Britain than originally anticipated, principally because our economy has been growing so much more rapidly and creating more jobs than other EU countries. As a result, our action has not been enough to cut annual net migration to the tens of thousands. That ambition remains the right one. But it is clearly going to take more time, more work and more difficult long-term decisions to achieve. Continuing this vital work will be our priority over the next five years.

We will negotiate new rules with the EU, so that people will have to be earning here for a number of years before they can claim benefits, including the tax credits that top up low wages. Instead of something-for-nothing, we will build a system based on the principle of something-for-something. We will then put these changes to the British people in a straight in-out referendum on our membership of the European Union by the end of 2017. At the same time, we will continue to strengthen our borders, improve the enforcement of our immigration laws and act to make sure people leave at the end of their visas. Across the spectrum, from the student route to the family and work routes, we will build a system that truly puts you, your family and the British people first.

Our plan of action:

We will regain control of EU migration by reforming welfare rules

Changes to welfare to cut EU migration will be an absolute requirement in the renegotiation. We have already banned housing benefit for EU jobseekers, and restricted other benefits, including Jobseeker's Allowance. We will insist that EU migrants who want to claim tax credits and child benefit must live here and contribute to our country for a minimum of four years. This will reduce the financial incentive for lower-paid, lower-skilled workers to come to Britain. We will introduce a new residency requirement for social housing, so that EU migrants cannot even be considered for a council house unless they have been living in an area for at least four years. If an EU migrant's child is living abroad, then they should receive no child benefit or child tax credit, no matter how long they have worked in the UK and no matter how much tax they have paid. To reduce the numbers of EU migrants coming to Britain, we will end the ability of EU jobseekers to claim any job-seeking benefits at all. And if jobseekers have not found a job within six months, they will be required to leave.

We will tackle criminality and abuse of free movement

We will negotiate with the EU to introduce stronger powers to deport criminals and stop them coming back, and tougher and longer re-entry bans for all those who abuse free movement. We want to toughen requirements for non-EU spouses to join EU citizens, including with an income threshold and English language test. And when new countries are admitted to the EU in future, we will insist that free movement cannot apply to those new members until their economies have converged much more closely with existing Member States.

We will continue to cut immigration from outside the EU

We have already capped the level of skilled economic migration from outside the EU. We will maintain our cap at 20,700 during the next Parliament. This will ensure that we only grant visas to those who have the skills we really need in our economy. We will reform the student visa system with new measures to tackle abuse and reduce the numbers of students overstaying once their visas expire. Our action will include clamping down on the number of so-called 'satellite campuses' opened in London by universities located elsewhere in the UK, and reviewing the highly trusted sponsor system for student visas. And as the introduction of exit checks will allow us to place more responsibility on visa sponsors for migrants who overstay, we will introduce targeted sanctions for those colleges or businesses that fail to ensure that migrants comply with the terms of their visa.

We will strengthen the enforcement of immigration rules

We have introduced a 'deport first, appeal later' rule for foreign national offenders. We will now remove even more illegal immigrants by extending this rule to all immigration appeals and judicial reviews, including where a so-called right to family life is involved, apart from asylum claims. We will also implement a new removals strategy to take away opportunities for spurious legal challenge and opportunities to abscond. We will introduce satellite tracking for every foreign national offender subject to an outstanding deportation order or deportation proceedings. And we will implement the requirement for all landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants.

We will tackle people trafficking and exploitation

We have already re-introduced a proper system of exit checks across the country, passed a Modern Slavery Act that will protect people from exploitation, and quadrupled the fines for unscrupulous employers who undercut the Minimum Wage. Now we will introduce tougher labour market regulation to tackle illegal working and exploitation. To crack down further on illegal working, we will harness data from multiple agencies, including Exit Checks data, to identify illegal immigrants and businesses that employ illegal workers. And to incentivise tougher action on employers who do not pay the minimum wage, we will allow inspection teams to reinvest more of the money raised by fines levied on employers.

We will ease pressure on public services and your local community

We are taking unprecedented action to tackle health tourism and will recover up to £500 million from migrants who use the NHS by the middle of the next Parliament. To help communities experiencing high and unexpected volumes of immigration, we will introduce a new Controlling Migration Fund to ease pressures on services and to pay for additional immigration enforcement. To prevent sectors becoming partially or wholly reliant on foreign workers, we will require those regularly utilising the Shortage Occupation List, under which they can bring skilled foreign workers into the UK, to provide long-term plans for training British workers.

We will promote integration and British values

Being able to speak English is a fundamental part of integrating into our society. We have introduced tough new language tests for migrants and ensured councils reduce spending on translation services. Next, we will legislate to ensure that every public sector worker operating in a customer-facing role must speak fluent English. And to encourage better integration into our society, we will also require those coming to Britain on a family visa with only basic English to become more fluent over time, with new language tests for those seeking a visa extension.