Brexit referendum: Boris Johnson vows Australian style migration laws

Boris Johnson vows to introduce Australian-style points system to control immigration within 3 years of Brexit vote.

Boris Johnson MP takes to the wicket during a visit to Chester-Le-Street Cricket Club as part of the Brexit tour.

British political heavyweights Michael Gove and Boris Johnson will promise to introduce an Australian-style points system to control immigration within three years of a vote to leave the European Union.

Migrants coming from the EU to work or study would be assessed on the basis of their skills and admitted only if Britain had identified a shortage within a particular industry, they will say. The new arrivals would also be required to speak good English.

The pledge from the two most prominent Leave campaigners follows their vow to scrap VAT on fuel for the poorest households in the event of Brexit.

The interventions amount to an alternative manifesto to the one offered by David Cameron and come as the Leave camp appears to be gaining ground in the polls. Two surveys by ICM put Brexit on 52 per cent, a four-point lead over Remain. A YouGov online survey for The Times has the two sides neck and neck on 41 per cent.

Mr Gove and Mr Johnson will escalate their attack on the prime minister, accusing him of trying to “hide behind” the EU over his failure to fulfil a pledge to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands. They claim that they want Mr Cameron to stay in No 10 if Britain votes to leave the EU, but add further details to their program, highlighting things he cannot deliver.

The most eye-catching is the promise to introduce a “genuine Australian-style points system” for immigration by the next election. After Brexit, “the automatic right of all EU citizens to come to live and work in the UK will end, as will EU control over vital aspects of our social security system”, the two men say in a statement also signed by Priti Patel, the employment minister, and the Labour MP Gisela Stuart.

“Those seeking entry for work or study should be admitted on the basis of their skills without discrimination on the ground of nationality. To gain the right to work, economic migrants will have to be suitable for the job in question. For relevant jobs, we will be able to ensure that all those who come have the ability to speak good English,” they add.

They promise to keep freedoms for Irish citizens and the present border arrangements with Northern Ireland. Migrants from the EU in Britain would be given indefinite leave to remain. The UK already grants work visas for industries with labour shortages but these are required only for non-EU citizens.

In committing to the “genuine”Australian system for all migrants — and a timetable for its implementation — the Brexit campaign risks opening itself to attack on two fronts.

Migration Watch UK has dismissed the Australian system as “thoroughly unsuitable for the UK”, pointing out that it covers only 15 per cent of migration into that country. “A mechanical, points-based test that reduces, even eliminates, human discretion cannot cope with the complexities of immigration to the UK,” the group said in December 2014.

The timetable for the change appears to commit the Brexit campaign to concluding negotiations with the rest of the EU rapidly. Vote Leave has previously suggested that Britain could delay triggering a two-year limit on the exit talks while it started to put alternative trade arrangements in place.

The Brexit camp is showing more willingness to put Mr Cameron’s future at stake on June 23. Mr Gove and Mr Johnson say: “If we implement these principles, for the first time in a generation it will be possible for politicians to keep their promises on migration.”

The move comes after Vote Leave appealed to Labour voters by saying that quitting the EU would allow ministers to scrap VAT on energy bills for the poorest households.

George Osborne, the chancellor, dismissed that as “fantasy land” economics, saying that VAT would rise if Britain left the EU because the economy would shrink.

EU Fact Check

The Australian points-based visa system has long been considered a model for an independent Britain..

Australia allows visitor visas of up to three months for holiday-makers, working holiday visas of a year for 18 to 30-year-olds and higher education visas for students.

Qualified people under 50 can apply for permanent residence — for example 2,525 accountants will be allowed in this year, 14,872 nurses and 8,886 IT professionals. But Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, which campaigns for lower immigration, has dismissed the Australian system, saying an independent Britain should not require visas for tourism from EU countries nor for genuine marriage, study or settlement by those with the means to support themselves.

“The Australian points-based system ... is not a good model for the UK,” he wrote. “Their system is complex and our attempt to introduce a British version has proved unworkable (it has been abandoned, in all but name). And anyway, the Australian system is designed to promote immigration rather than reduce it.”

Britain introduced a points-based system for non-EU migrants in 2008, with points awarded for qualifications, future expected earnings, sponsorship and English language skills. But it became hamstrung by complicated rules and demands for high levels of qualifications for permanent visas.

Any system to limit EU arrivals looking for work will lead the EU to impose reciprocal restrictions on Britons seeking employment on the continent. The Swiss voted in 2014 to restrict EU migrants leading to the suspension of EU co-operation on research projects.