Tougher line on visas pledged so only the 'brightest and best' can enter UK

Immigration Minister Damian Green said the annual cap on economic migrants from outside the EU will not be enough on its own to deliver the target of reducing net immigration to the "tens of thousands".

He said the unsustainable levels of net migration, which leapt by a fifth last year to 196,000, must be brought down and "all routes into the UK" must be studied to ensure only the "brightest and best" migrants entered the country to study and work.

Speaking at the Royal Commonwealth Club, Mr Green said: ""We are looking at all routes, and will need to set rules for each of them that give us the immigrants we need...

"Change is seldom easy. But in an increasingly globalised world it is ever more important that proper immigration controls are not only in place but are seen to be in place."

Mr Green said the points-based system introduced by Labour was still not delivering proper control of numbers of migrants coming into the country and added it had been "too easy" for people to enter the UK illegally and to stay beyond the length of a visa.

Home Office-commissioned research found the largest group of visas granted in 2004 were to 186,000 students, more than one-fifth of whom – about 37,000 people – were still in the UK five years later.

The research found that numbers of visas issued to students and their dependants had risen to 307,000 by the year to June 2010.