UK government in-fighting between coalition ministers has led to the scrapping on a controversial visa bond for expats coming to Britain.
The bond scheme was due to come into force from this month, but is now axed, according to the Home Office.
The decision comes after a rumoured stand-off between Home Secretary Theresa May and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
May announced the plans in June.
She felt the £3,000 bond would deter visitors from ‘high risk’ countries like India, Pakistan and Nigeria coming to the UK on short-term visas and then overstaying without permission.
The bond would be seized by the government if the visa holder failed to leave the country when the visa expired.
Anti-British feeling
Clegg proposed a smaller £1,000 bond earlier in the year as a way of letting visitors who could not obtain a visa through normal channels come into the UK.
Since then, the Lib Dems have argued that the Tories deliberately misinterpreted the scheme and wanted to apply the bond to all visitors from specific countries.
The proposal had also stirred up anti-British feeling in countries where the bond would be applied – especially India.
“The Home Office policy was not in line with what the Liberal Democrats had proposed and was badly criticised in government,” said a Liberal Democrat spokesman.
“We made our objections clear and that the bond in the format the Home Office was putting forward would not gain our support and was likely to fail.”
A visa bond has been floated in various guises by all parties over recent years –including Labour.
Despite receiving wide cross-party support, an acceptable method of implementing the policy has never been agreed.
Go Home vans
Labour’s shadow immigration minister David Hanson argued the coalition’s immigration policy was chaotic and was upsetting expats and legitimate visitors to Britain.
“Indian investors are thinking twice about putting money in the UK economy because of this. We’re also seeing the legal issues of David Cameron’s ‘Go Home’ vans touring the streets.”
The Prime Minister had ordered vans bearing posters advising illegal immigrants to leave the UK or they would face arrest and deportation, but the campaign was pulled in the face of criticism and threats of a legal challenge.
Immigration minister Mark Harper explained the government was trying a new policy approach.
“Our plans work. Net migration is down a third since peaking in 2010,” he said.
“We gradually constructing an immigration system that meets everyone’s interests turning attention to remove the areas of most abuse.”
