Theresa May’s poisonous immigration legacy

As Prime minister, Mrs May has proposed limiting immigration to those earning more than £30,000 a year. This has worried employers in fields from agriculture to healthcare. Josh Hardie, deputy director-general of the CBI employers’ group, said: “All skill levels matter to the UK economy.” Mrs May will not be around much longer. She has told her party that she will not contest the next general election, which is due in 2022, but few expect her to last until then. Will her immigration legacy outlast her? It depends on who succeeds her, whether Brexit happens and what form it takes. The UK’s EU residents, who have been promised that they will have a right to stay after Brexit, cannot take much comfort from what has happened to others. Institutional behaviour does not shift quickly. Once officials have been schooled to behave in a certain away, it takes time for them to change, even if the political will for a change exists, which it may not. The hostile environment policy has left a tawdry legacy and, as the immigration figures show, it did not even achieve its own objectives.