London mayor slams UK immigration rules

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has criticised the UK government’s savage measures of tightening the visa situation, which has decreased the number of foreign students in the country.

Johnson’s intervention comes as the number of foreign students fell by 22 percent last year.

The London Mayor said in a speech to the Global Universities Summit in London. “I looked at the recent figures for foreign students coming to this country and I did not regard what seemed to me to be a reduction in those numbers as necessarily a positive economic indicator”.

His interference is also expected to anger ministers with opposite views like the Home Office Minister, Mark Harper, who praised the fall in net migration last week.

Prime Minister David Cameron has also said he wants to see net migration drop to the “tens of thousands” by 2015.

Meanwhile, Business Secretary Vince Cable also warned that public “panic” over immigration is causing harm to Britain’s economy.

Cable said that foreign students were being put off from studying at British institutions and that firm visa controls were making it difficult for foreign experts working in the country.