David Cameron, British Prime Minister, stands at the precipice of one of the most controversial decisions concerning UK immigration since the 1960’s. As the new coalition government leader, Cameron struggles with negotiating his inherent conservative politics with the Liberal Democrats’ views on immigration. In a speech given on April 14th concerning the progress of the new regime, David Cameron revealed his plan to reduce net migration “in the order of tens of thousands each year, not the hundreds of thousands every year that we have seen over the last decade". In doing so, he hopes to alleviate social tension within family neighborhoods, reduce the amount of fraudulent marriages, and free up more jobs for UK-born nationals.

Concerned with the growing discrepancy between those entering and those exiting, Cameron fears the loose lasso of previous administrations could have muddied the social waters. However, many find his cap bordering on extremism, especially within the coalition’s constraints. Amongst the most vocal is Vince Cable, Cameron’s Business Secretary and British Liberal Democrat. Cable calls the Prime Minister’s choice of words “very unwise” and asserts that “The reference to tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands of people is not part of coalition policy.” With only 20% of non-EU immigrants covered under the proposed cap and 5,000 employees recently displaced from the UK Border Agency, Vince Cable seems to accurately depict the country’s surprise despite his public and inappropriate reproach of the Prime Minister.

Immigration has been a tricky subject for the Commonwealth since 1962 when Parliament attempted to repeal the British Immigration Act (1948), which stated that any native of a British Isle or colony was eligible to full UK citizenship. Thus, post-WWII Britain was met with a surprising influx of new residents, creating the need for control. The immigration laws enacted between 1962 and 1978 tried to preserve the rights of individuals born in the UK versus those “lesser” rights of citizens from colonized countries. Over the past two decades, the government has vacillated between liberal acceptance and staunch conservative denial of the increase in immigration.

The coalition government formed after the 2010 election and hopes to bridge the ever-widening gap between the Tories (Republicans) and the Liberal Democrats. Agreements were set and negotiated, establishing a programme, whose policy David Cameron finds himself dangerously close to skirting. However, with thirteen years of incongruous government resulting in a massive budget deficit, the government is firm on utilizing the coalition to reach a middle, and more productive ground. It is therefore unsurprising that there would be disagreement between cabinet members with differing politics, but hopefully these issues can be resolved behind closed doors in the future.

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