Legal News

Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major has praised the “guts and drive” of immigrants who have come to the UK to improve the lives of their families.

In a BBC interview, Sir John said that, as a child, he used to play with children from immigrant families near his home in Brixton, south London:

“I didn’t see people who had come here just to benefit from our social system,” he said.

“I saw people with the guts and drive to travel halfway across the world in many cases, to better themselves and their families.”

Sir John – who is now 71 – said that he recalls “a different social value” was “placed on immigration” in 1950s Britain, when he was young. He said the families who came to the UK to improve their lives had, in his opinion, a “very Conservative instinct”.

The current Tory Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to reduce net migration to the UK to “tens of thousands” every year – last year net migration remained at 212,000, however.

The Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, Nick Clegg, has in the past said that without migrant workers in the UK, the City of London and the NHS would “fall over”.

This week Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith also blamed the UK’s “generous” benefits system under New Labour for thousands of Britons not working, with the result that migrant workers had been needed to fill skills gaps and take low-paid jobs which Britons would not do.

Duncan Lewis Immigration Solicitors

Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors can advise on a wide range of immigration matters, including:

• Asylum and asylum appeals
• Benefits for migrants
• British citizenship
• Marriage in the UK and spouse visas
• Right to work in the UK
• Student visas
• Visa overstays.

Duncan Lewis is also a leading provider of Legal Aid services in the UK.

For expert legal advice on UK immigration law and asylum – including right to work in the UK – contact Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors on 020 7923 4020.