Clarke: Backing points system

The government is this week set to reveal its immigration plans following a Tory onslaught on asylum.

Home secretary Charles Clarke will announce plans to create a points system for those seeking to live and work in the UK.

Under the proposals anyone seeking to move to the UK will have to prove that they can contribute to the country.

The points system will take into account factors such as age, education, language skills and employment history.

While skilled workers from overseas will be able to bring their immediate families, a new crackdown on migrant numbers will also be implemented.

The adoption of an Australian-style points system is being seen as an attempt to assuage growing public fears about immigration.

Speaking on Sunday, Clarke said those seeking to live in the UK must prove they "have a job and can contribute to the economy of the country".

Burden

Clarke will detail his new five-year strategy on Monday and will vow to take control of the immigration and asylum system.

"Migration for work, migration to study is a good thing," said Clarke. "What is wrong is when that system isn't properly policed, and people are coming here who are a burden on the society, and it is that which we intend to drive out," he said.

"What we are saying is that we believe that
economic migrants are of great value to this country," said the home secretary.

"They provide skills and goods which help us to establish and strengthen our economy, as indeed do students coming into the country.

"But we want to ensure that the people who do come into the country are the people who do bring us those benefits."

Monitoring

He will call for new measures to be put in place to monitor the exact number of migrants and asylum seekers.

"One of the key issues of our proposals tomorrow is to ensure that we are able properly to identify absolutely everybody who comes into the country," Clarke told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost.

He will also pledge to remove failed asylum seekers. "We have got to have a proper process for removing those who fail in their asylum seeking," added Clarke.

But Clarke will reject the Conservatives' policy of imposing a quota on the number of asylum seekers.

Soft on asylum

Despite this week's policy announcement the Conservatives still believe that Labour is soft on asylum and immigration.

Party co-chairman Liam Fox said "immigration had trebled to 150,000 a year" since Labour came to office.

"That's a city the size of Peterborough arriving in the UK every year," he added.

"It seems a little odd that this government is willing to commit British troops to Iraq in the battle against terror but is unwilling to put people manning security at our ports 24 hours a day."

Clarke, however, maintains that the Tory proposals are unworkable and ill thought through.

"I don't criticise the Conservatives for debating the question, I criticise them for having entirely impractical proposals
and not thinking through what they are doing," he said.

"I think the irresponsible thing is to debate it without having a proper policy approach."