UK Edition
Sajid Javid to relax immigration controls to bring in thousands more skilled workers
Sajid Javid will unveil a major easing of Britain's immigration system that will enable thousands more highly-skilled migrants to come to the UK in the run-up to Brexit, The Telegraph has learned.
Businesses and employers will be able to recruit an extra 8,000 skilled migrants a year from other professions including IT experts, engineers and teachers, effectively increasing the cap by 40 per cent.
The Home Secretary is expected to announce on Friday that foreign doctors and nurses from outside the EU will be excluded from the "tier 2" visa cap to ensure the NHS can attract the "brightest and best" while giving business a higher allocation.
It will represent Mr Javid's first major migration policy and indicates that ministers are now prepared to project Britain as a more global country, open to business from beyond the EU after Brexit.
The announcement represents the most significant softening of the Government's position on non-EU migration since Theresa May was appointed Home Secretary in 2010. The Prime Minister previously rejected calls to relax the cap when pleas were made by Amber Rudd, her former Home Secretary.
The Telegraph understands that Mrs May was persuaded to back a "time-limited" exemption for doctors and nurses after a series of Cabinet ministers wrote to the Prime Minister to voice their support for Mr Javid's plan.
Mr Javid will also announce the first review in five years of the professions that qualify for visas in a move that could see GPs, teachers and other skilled migrants given the right to come to the UK under tier 2 visas.
The concession will put Mrs May under mounting pressure from her Cabinet to abandon her target of reducing net migration to the "tens of thousands" and to strip students out of the official figures.
The Prime Minister has long insisted that the main purpose of Brexit is to bring migration under control and since her time as Home Secretary has resisted calls to soften her stance.
Leading Eurosceptics including Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, argue that the EU referendum vote was about "control" and deciding who should be allowed to enter the UK rather than slashing numbers outright.
Ministers have yet to agree, or begin detailed discussions on the post-Brexit EU immigration plan, but there is growing speculation that it will not be particularly punitive.
George Osborne, the former Chancellor who was regarded as close to Mr Javid when in Government, claimed last year that every member of the Prime Minister's Cabinet is opposed to her net migration target.
However, a Government source stressed that the reform is part of the "long-term plan" for the NHS. It comes ahead of the health service's 70th birthday next month.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Javid is understood to have warned that increased recruitment of doctors from outside the European Union has meant that the cap for all skilled workers - which is set at 20,700 people a year - has been breached in every month since December.
It is understood that in the communication, the Home Secretary stressed that the new policy did not change his "position on net migration".
He said that the ultimate aim of Government policy must be to train more British doctors, but that there was a short-term crisis in recruitment which was having knock-on effects to other parts of the economy.
The Telegraph understands that Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, Greg Clark, the Business Secretary and Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary have all written back to the Prime Minister giving their support to the idea.
Mr Hinds is understood to have warned the Prime Minister that 300 applications by foreign teachers have been rejected, and suggested that they may need to be exempted from the cap in future if it is breached again.
He is also pushing for non-EU teachers of "modern languages" to be added to the "shortage occupation" list detailing the professions that qualify for tier 2 visas.
The review of the list, the first since 2013, will be conducted by the Migration Advisory Council. The move represents a significant moment for Mr Javid, who has taken a far softer approach to migration than Mrs May.
Earlier this month the Home Secretary repeatedly refused to endorse Mrs May's target of reducing levels of net migration to the "tens of thousands".
He also echoed Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, in suggesting that students should be removed from the net migration target.
Lord Green of Deddington, the chairman of Migration Watch, said: "This is the first time that immigration policy has been significantly softened since Mrs May became Home Secretary since 2010.
"It may be necessary, at least temporarily, to cope with the prospect of Brexit but in the longer term the answer has to be to train our own medics and not take them from countries that need them far more than we do."
The Prime Minister on Wednesday hailed a new visa that will enable Britain to attract the "best talent" from across the world to work in the UK's burgeoning technology sector.
During talks at No 10 with industry leaders, the Prime Minister said rules are being changed to allow more tech entrepreneurs to head to the UK.
She said: "There are exciting tech opportunities here in the United Kingdom. In London tech week, Britain as a place to do tech business is being enthusiastically championed. We have continually shown the advantages that the UK has for the tech sector."