Skilled immigrants to be made to learn English
BILL JACOBS

GORDON Brown will announce that all skilled immigrant workers coming into the UK will have to learn English before being given entry into Britain when he addresses the Trades Union Congress in Brighton tomorrow.

And he will indicate that even low-skilled workers such as fruit pickers may face the language test.

The Prime Minister will tell delegates that the move could cut the number of people coming to Britain seeking to work and settle permanently from countries outside the European Union by at least 35,000 a year.

While some in the Labour Party will see the controversial crackdown as a shift to the right, many in the trades union movement will see it as important in the battle against gang masters who import cheap foreign labour, undermining British workers.

Brown will tell the TUC that the move will form a "key plank" of the government's new policy on immigration.

And his strategists believe it will present a major dilemma to opposition leader David Cameron, trying to reposition the Conservatives as a modern, compassionate party. They think if he attacks Brown's move he will further anger core voters.

Since December, highly skilled migrants from outside the EU have been forced to learn English, and Brown will signal this week that this will be extended to all skilled migrants. They numbered 96,000 last year but 35,000 would have failed an English-speaking test, according to government experts.

In future, Brown will tell delegates in Brighton, they will be expected to speak, write and understand English to the standard of a British school pupil entering sixth form.

Brown has made it clear that he believes training unemployed and low-skilled UK citizens is preferable to relying on migrants.

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/uk ... 1441962007