The “Golden Visa” scheme, technically known as Tier 1 investor visas, has been scrapped following pressure from the Liberal Democrats in the Lords.
The scheme offered residency to people, and their families, from overseas if they invested £2million in the UK.
The Liberal Democrats in the Lords had tabled an amendment to the Nationality and Borders Bill calling for the scheme to be stopped until a full review is published.
Yesterday the Home Secretary finally recognised that it was a complete can of worms, and scrapped the scheme, with immediate effect.
Layla Moran, who is our Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said:
The Conservatives have turned a blind eye to Russian interference in this country for years and had an open door policy to Kremlin cronies.
Shockingly this Government still hasn’t published a report about the possible misuse of golden visas.
Cancelling the scheme is long overdue, it shouldn’t have taken the threat of a defeat in Parliament to finally get this Government to act.
They must publish this report immediately and take urgent steps to tackle the influence of Russian money including a public register of overseas property ownership.
The Government must immediately publish the long overdue report into those who currently hold and came here on these visas. It’s time to kick out associates of the Kremlin who have used golden visas to launder their dirty money, and reputations, in our country.
— Layla Moran 🔶 (@LaylaMoran) February 17, 2022
But that is not the end of the story.
Layla has now written to the Home Secretary asking her to revoke “Golden visas” that have already been issued in certain circumstances. It seems 2581 of these visas have been granted to Russian citizens since 2008.
Layla Moran says:
Priti Patel must set out a clear action plan and timetable to revoke golden visas handed out to Russian nationals who pose a potential security risk. Now is the time to send a strong signal that London can no longer be treated as Putin’s playground.
We need to hit Putin’s regime where it hurts, and that means stopping his oligarch friends using our country as a place to launder their cash and buy up luxury property.
For years, ministers have dragged their heels and failed to act. Putin’s aggression against Ukraine should be a wake-up call to finally end the pervasive influence of dirty Russian money on our country.
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2 Comments
As far as I remember it the £2million of required ‘investment’ didn’t mean starting a business and creating jobs. Buying a big enough house would do.
Just to note: in spite of its many failings, the Lords is where opposition parties can force the government to face up to indefensible positions, and so have to back down. I had spoken on the ‘golden visa’ scheme when the Bill reached the Lords – several of us in the Lords have been pursuing corruption issues for some time – and put down an amendment for the committee stage, not expecting it to get very far. It then received strong support from the cross-benches and even some Conservatives – party whips are weaker in the Lords – which made it likely that the government would lose the vote at report stage. This sort of forced change in government policy is much more difficult in the Commons, where party discipline is tighter and independents hardly exist.