Cameron urges public to report illegal immigrants to officials

“Everyone in the country” should help in the battle against illegal immigration after Labour’s failure to tackle the problem, said the Prime Minister in a speech outlining a series of moves to reverse the trend of immigration “going through the roof” in recent years.

In a move to tighten the system, foreign spouses could be forced to wait longer before gaining settlement rights and migrants could be forced to put up money to ensure they did not become a drain on the taxpayer.

Mr Cameron also revealed he is to consider making forced marriage a criminal offence to try to stamp out the practice, a move which won him warm praise from one West Yorkshire MP who has campaigned on the issue.

The speech yesterday was Mr Cameron’s second major attempt to address an issue which remains a considerable concern to voters. He reiterated his desire to cut net migration to levels seen decades ago, but called on the public to play their part.

“I want everyone in the country to help – including by reporting suspected illegal immigrants to our Border Agency through the Crimestoppers phone line or through the Border Agency website,” he said. “Together we will reclaim our borders and send illegal immigrants home.”

Mr Cameron was scathing of Labour’s attempts to grapple with high immigration, saying that net migration – the difference between people arriving in the country and those leaving – hit 239,000 in 2010, up from 198,000 in 2009 and 163,000 in 2008.

“These very high numbers for the end of the last government’s term of office are why under the last government, we saw a worrying collapse in public confidence in our ability to control inward migration,” he said.

“They may have talked tough, but there was a fundamental mismatch between rhetoric and reality. And at the heart of all this I believe is the complete failure of the last government’s points-based system to control migration.”

Mr Cameron said that in future individuals applying to come to the UK for family reasons would have to show that they could speak English and have the financial resources to support themselves, as well as genuine family links in Britain.

But he said he was determined to give “the red carpet treatment” to entrepreneurs, investors and scientists from overseas who want to come to Britain to create businesses and jobs.

On forced marriage, Mr Cameron said the Home Office would consult on whether to make it a criminal offence, in line with recent calls from a committee of MPs. Officials had recently ruled out such a move but last year 1,735 possible cases were reported to the Forced Marriages Unit.

“Forced marriage is little more than slavery,” he said. “To force someone into marriage is completely wrong and I strongly believe this is a problem we should not shy away from addressing.”

He acknowledged that some people fear criminalisation will dissuade potential victims from coming forward, so Mr Cameron said he would initially make it a criminal offence to breach a Forced Marriage Prevention Order, a civil order introduced to try to tackle the problem before consulting on criminalising the act itself.

Keighley Tory MP Kris Hopkins said: “Forced marriages are an appalling and shameful blight on our society and it is right that the toughest possible action is taken against those involved. These people are criminals and they should be treated as criminals.”