With the Telegraph turning against rules on immigration has the Home Office now gone too far finally?

The benchmark on income for visas for spouses was always varying to other rules on anti-immigration. Whenever it was described to another person they would always express outrage, even if they were instinctively very opposed to immigration. Maybe because it is a rule on anti-immigration that has Brits as its specific targets. Now, four years after its introduction even the Telegraph is turning against it.

The day’s edition rails against the 18,000 families of Britain who have been separated by the annual income requirement of £18,600 for spouses of British citizens that are not European. This is a law which has forced couples who are married to reside separately, prevented Brits from coming back home after they have resided abroad and forced kids to grow up without their father or mother.

Colin Yeo the brilliant lawyer on immigration was quoted by the paper, in addition to the Migrants Rights Network – both of whom are not usually the type of people they would make contact with. It further assists is the promotion of the protests tomorrow outside the Home Office which BritsCits the campaign group is organizing and where a push for change would be advocated by those affected by the rules.

The policy has also been questioned by Labour where it has been called a “love charge” by David Hanson their spokesman on immigration. This is very unlike Labour whose usual response to most of the policies on immigration of the Torys is to request for them to be taken further.
The benchmark on income runs against basic human decency and the instinctive sense of fairness in human beings. The supposedly claims of the government being family-oriented is contradicted by it. It is deeply unkind, counter-productive, and perverse.

The scope of discomfort with the law is a suggestion that for immigration campaigners the battle has been won. There has not been any success so far in getting the rules changes through legal processes. However this appears to be one of those situations that are exceptional, similar to the Gurkhas in which an immigration policy that was draconian could be turned over through support by the media and the public. Theresa May must be concerned. That piece by the Telegraph reveals that this is a spot that is weak in the agenda of the Home Office on anti-immigration.