Immigration

Border controls

The Labour government has failed to control Britain's borders and has presided over an explosion in our population without any idea who has come in, where they have gone and what they are doing here. Some of Lincolnshire's most important industries rely on migrant workers, so most of us recognise that immigration can be a real benefit to the UK. But only if it is properly controlled and its impact on the economy, public services and social cohesion is taken into account.

A Conservative government would take a new approach, one that will ensure that we admit both the right people for our economy and also the right number of people.

For economic migrants from outside the EU, we propose a two-stage process:

  • The first stage is making eligible for admission those who will benefit the economy
  • The second stage is an annual limit to control the numbers admitted with regard to the wider effects on society and the provision of public services.

A Conservative Government would also apply transitional controls as a matter of course in the future for all new EU entrants.

To enforce such controls, and to prevent illegal immigration and combat people-traffickers, we need a new, integrated approach to managing our borders. So we will introduce a dedicated Border Police Force to bring together all the agencies responsible for border control. Unlike Labour's Border Agency, which does not even include the police, our force will have the power to stop, search, detain and prosecute the terrorists, traffickers and illegal immigrants who currently slip through the net. Only then will we be able to start making Britain safer.

Integration

As well as controlling the number of new people coming to settle in the UK, we also need to ensure that those who do come are properly integrated into British society: that they adapt to our culture and obey our laws. This will only be possible if they learn English. A Conservatives government would cut government spending on translation services and multi-lingual websites and invest the money in teaching English to those for whom it isn't a first language. We will also deport foreign clerics who preach hatred and support terrorism - and ban the organisations that support them like Hizb ut Tahrir.


Nick Boles

07 JAN 2010

Let the voters have their say

While most people in the country have been worrying about how to get to work through the snow and ice and who's going to look after their children while their school is closed, everyone in Westminster has spent the last two days talking about the latest Labour plot to get rid of Gordon Brown.  I don't know about you but I am heartily sick of these stories.  Gordon Brown has been Prime Minister for the last two years.  The British people had no say in his election to that office.   At the very least, they deserve an opportunity to pass their own verdict on his tenure of it.  And a general election is the way to let them do it.

05 JAN 2010

My NHS, your NHS, our NHS

David Cameron has kicked off the Conservatives' campaign for change with a billboard promising cuts in the budget deficit and not the NHS.  Our opponents doubt the depth and sincerity of the Conservatives' commitment to the NHS.  But I hope that no-one will doubt David Cameron's - or mine.  David has talked of the huge debt he and his family owe the NHS for the way doctors and nurses looked after Ivan and helped make his short life a more bearable one.  What some of you may not know is that I have my own personal reason to thank the NHS.  In the spring of 2007, before I moved to Lincolnshire, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease,  a cancer of the lymph system.  Although I had private health insurance at the time, I relied on the NHS for every aspect of my treatment.  And the care I received throughout several months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy was superb.  Can the NHS be reformed and improved?  Of course it can.  But can I countenance a Britain without it?  Over my dead body.