Shop illegal immigrants, says PM

The Prime Minister said he wanted the whole country to help the government to tackle the issue by reporting suspicious individuals.

He also insisted the citizenship test for legal incomers would be rewritten to include questions on British history, and signalled a fresh crackdown on forced and bogus marriages.

The moves were revealed yesterday as Mr Cameron delivered a keynote speech setting out plans to control immigration.

In future, individuals applying to come to the UK for family reasons will have to show that they can speak English and have the financial means to support themselves, as well as genuine family links in Britain.

Family migration made up almost a fifth of non-European Union immigration last year, with 50,000 visas issued, he told an audience at the Institute for Government in London.

There will be closer checks on claimed relationships between spouses to weed out sham marriages for immigration reasons, including cases where couples divorce immediately after obtaining permission to stay and then make fresh applications relating to different partners.

“We will make migrants wait longer, to show they really are in a genuine relationship, before they can get settlement,” Mr Cameron said.

“We’ll also impose stricter and clearer tests on the genuineness of a relationship, including the ability to speak the same language and to know each other’s circumstances.”

He added: “We will also end the ridiculous situation where a registrar who knows a marriage is a sham still has to perform the ceremony.”