Migrant graduates will be subject to English tests to stay in UK under crackdown – but it’s weaker than original plan

MIGRANTS using the controversial Graduate Route to stay in Britain after their uni studies will be subject to mandatory English tests.

The Cabinet will today approve a clampdown on the scheme that allows foreign students to work here for two years - often on less than the minimum wage.

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But after Foreign Secretary David Cameron personally wrote to Rishi Sunak some proposed measures have been watered down.

Universities and colleges with high dropout rates face losing their licence to recruit overseas.

And touting agents luring foreigners away from their studies to low paid work will also be targeted by the Home Office.

But the package will fall short of tougher restrictions that would have seen the two year working window reduced and the scheme restricted to top institutions. 

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Last night government sources insisted the new version would have an effect on numbers leaving only the “best and brightest” on the scheme.

They pointed to loopholes in the system that have seen a high number of supposed graduates gaming the system with poor English language skills.

But the package will likely infuriate Tory MPs who have demanded a far more sweeping reform.

A caucus of Cabinet Ministers including Lord Cameron, Jeremy Hunt and Gillian Keegan successfully killed off tougher proposals that would limit the scheme to elite unis. 

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Ministers will try to head off a looming migration row today by bringing forward better statistics showing a tens-of-thousands drop in visa applications for the start of this year.

They brought forward publication by a day to try to spin Thursday’s ONS figures that are expected to show net migration still absurdly high.

The Home Office will argue that the ONS stats - from the year to December 2023 - come before the recent package of controls to tame legal migration.

It includes a ban on care workers bringing dependents and raising the salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,000.