Tory visa rules to stop people earning under £38,700 from bringing foreign partners to Britain have been paused by the new Home Secretary.
Yvette Cooper confirmed there will be "no further changes" to the current £29,000-a-year wage threshold Britons need to bring a family member from abroad until a review of the family visa policy has been completed.
Ms Cooper confirmed on Wednesday that she will order the independent public body to launch a review.
"The Family Immigration Rules, including the Minimum Income Requirement, need to balance a respect for family life whilst also ensuring the economic wellbeing of the UK is maintained," the Home Secretary said in a written statement.
"To help ensure we reach the right balance and have a solid evidence base for any change, I will commission the MAC to review the financial requirements, in the Family Immigration Rules.
"The Minimum Income Requirement is currently set at £29,000 and there will be no further changes until the MAC review is complete."
The minimum income was raised from £18,600 to a £29,000 per year by Rishi Sunak’s government in a bid to help bring down the UK’s record immigration numbers.
Under the old plans the lower wage limit was set to increase to £38,700 in 2025.
Ms Cooper insisted that a “new approach” to legal migration aimed at boosting the UK workforce’s skills before recruiting abroad will be taken by Labour.
In a swipe at the previous Conservative government, the Home Secretary said rising levels of legal migration in recent years reflected a “failure over many years to tackle skills shortages and other problems in the UK labour market”.
She pointed to the huge rise in non-EU long-term migration from 277,000 in the year to December 2022 to 423,000 in the year to December 2023.
The number of work visas issued in the 12 months to March 2024 was 605,264.
Ms Cooper said: “That reflects a failure over many years to tackle skills shortages and other problems in the UK labour market, meaning too many sectors have remained reliant on international recruitment, instead of being able to source the skills they need here at home.
She added: “This is why we are setting out a different approach – one that links migration policy and visa controls to skills and labour market policies – so immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems here at home.
“This approach will be important to enabling delivery of the Government’s broader agenda.”
