Immigrants 'have to earn £35,000'

Migrant workers will in future need to earn at least £35,000 to qualify for a visa permitting them to settle in the UK, the government has announced.

Home Office minister Damian Green said the change would help cut the number of non-European workers and their dependents granted settlement each year from 60,000 to 20,000.

Currently no threshold on earnings is imposed by the government.

The government wants to reduce annual net migration to "tens of thousands".

It is attempting to cut net annual immigration, which includes students and the families of visa holders, to below 100,000 by 2015.

Figures published last week showed net migration was 250,000 in the year to June.