The government’s indecision over spousal visas proves it is not fit to run the country

Editorial: The Conservatives’ latest embarrassing climbdown over migration policy – this time, the unreasonable earnings requirements – was sneaked out on the quiet, with the home secretary nowhere to be seen. The entire ‘flagship’ strategy looks as sunk as the government

(Dave Brown)

According to the late Richard Crossman, an intellectual turned Labour politician, the most damaging thing you can do to a political party is to question its central myth in the run-up to a general election. In recent times, the Conservatives themselves, rather than the opposition, have been doing an outstanding job of demolishing their own central myth – that they are the uniquely competent natural party of government.

The latest self-inflicted injury is the messy U-turn on the earnings requirements that must be met in order that a spouse may settle with their partner in the UK. Born in confusion, and still in its early infancy, the plan seems doomed never to reach maturity.

The original Home Office proposal was to require that those who migrate to the UK must earn £38,700 a year before they are allowed to bring members of their family to live here – more than double the old, relatively undemanding threshold of £18,600. After an initial muddle, in which it was feared that the policy would be applied retrospectively and thus force settled families to break up, a further adjustment of the plan has been announced.