Theresa May clearly felt it was important to avoid checking the relevant facts before she made her announcement.

The test is whether the non-EU Spouse can be supported and maintained "without recourse to public funds" this is calculated individually - the test is whether after paying mortgage/rent and Council Tax the sponsor has the same amount that an equivalent family would have if they were receiving Income support.

Leaving aside the legal and human rights issues - a flat rate would probably mean a reduction in the amount needed for people who live in the South East.

Of course if the marriage contract and all it seems to stand for wasn't so over-valued individual members of the public should be able to get about in the world much more independently. Children of course only need the one responsible parent type. Why can't individuals only be admitted ?

gejala penyakit jantung

Why making it hard to fall in love with a foreigner where there are man you can always look from where you are, right?
home care business

I've always said *sarcastically* that if they really wanted to get net immigration down, all they had to do was get British people to leave. Looks like they're on their way with this one!

Don't understand why everyone is in a flap about this - the ECHR will overturn it and each of these cases will then be taken through the courts which will then take years and we'll be back to square one. Its all b*llshit basically - and as usual everyone laps its up.

Come on - you don't really think our elected politicians run this country anymore do you? Anyone who still thinks that Cameron or Clegg or even a future PM in the shape of Ed Miliband - is running or is going to run Britain must be completely barmy.

No matter what our treasonous political classes say they are going to do about this, that or the other - take it with a huge pinch of salt - cos they don't run the show anymore - the E.U. runs Britain now - hence the lack of any vision from our elected leaders - or should I say our elected 'managers'! lol We are tied to the EU and our elected 'managers' can't do sh*t about anything unless the EU gives them the nod first.

Basically - Theresa May is giving us all a bit of the old flannel. lol ;-)

I'm all for it. I'd like to see some 'competition' among the bourgeois.......lets get some labour in to beat their wages down in the pursuit of a 'free market'....a few more accountants Barristers Politicians, and Journalists for a start....maybe a barge load of cheap Chief Constables from India, perhaps.
Welcome to my world, chattering classes.

Away from the OP's "ho-ho-ho, how-ludicrous" sneering, it may have escaped his notice that we're in the middle of a debt crisis. Allowing foreign nationals either unemployed or employed in low-paying jobs to import their spouses over here simply means another person (the spouse) on benefits, which we can't afford. If they have children, that's more upkeep to be paid by the state. There's no money for this, and we need to be looking after flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone first.

Because if you haven’t noticed, it is the well off that the Tories cater for.

Some people should get their facts straight before commenting. The rule is "No Recourse to Public Funds". How then will a spouse coming to live in the UK with their partner be a burden on taxpayers when they cannot claim benefit but the tax office will gladly take the income tax and NI. As far as schooling goes any child born in the UK will be British anyway so inherit a right to schooling and then there are those people who do not intend to have children. My wife and I have been there done that and no longer wish to have more children. As far as healthcare goes I for one would be quite happy to take out private medical insurance for my wife, as I will need to do should we take the option to move to another European country. Alas this plays right into the govts hands as they are intent on forcing BRITISH CITIZENS to leave the country.

They are perfectly free to marry someone earning under that amount: back in their own countries.

A particularly obnoxious and nasty policy proposal. So much for conservative support for family values. And if the liberal in the coalition have a shred of liberalism left, they will vehemently oppose this.

For links to (nascent) campaigns against this policy, please see:
http://www.facebook.com/UnitedByLoveDividedByTheresaMay?

wow, that first comment was alarmingly predictable.

good work Jonathan! well said. this policy, from a government that is so desperate to encourage people to get married if they're straight that they'll offer incredibly unfair tax breaks is, quite frankly, mind boggling.

it's also not as easy as a.b.c to get a visa for a non EU husband or wife as it is.

Sian

At a time when the never ending welfare purse is running dry, housing is at a premium and school places are scarce, something has to be done to stem the overpopulation, especially in places like London. Is it not right that we would look to controlling immigration? I work in an inner city borough with many people who deliberately going abroad to find wives, because this is tradition, or because the 'right' woman can't be found here. Is it wrong to challenge this, to try and prevent another generation of non-English speaking ghetto-ised people depending on the British state, to which hey have frequently contributed nothing.

The New Statesman is very good at claiming to be for the working poor and yet it is the British born working classes who are suffering from large amounts of immigration. (50% of social housing in Haringey is going to non-british passport holders. Ask yourself who's losing out.) It seems to me that you consistently oppose any policies that might stem immigration you ignore the fact that it is this immigration that contributes to the increasing marginalization of British born working classes. (If you own your own private property in a 'nice, white middle class' you will be far less affected by the shortage of school places, the queues at the GP surgery and those long social housing lists...)

Now I realize I haven't actually answered the article's main point... should people have to earn a certain amount to bring their spouse to the UK. No is the answer, it shouldn't be this heartless, but I'd like to know if the New Statesman actually has any solutions to the overcrowding on our island? I also wonder if they had any objections to the mass unthoughtout immigration of the last two decades which have led to a govt taking such drastic actions now?