Theresa May scraps plans for £3,000 security bond on visitors deemed ‘high risk’

Labour MP Keith Vaz says Theresa May is right to abandon the “unfair and discriminatory” scheme

The Government has scrapped plans for a scheme to make 'high risk' visitors to the UK pay a security bond (PA)

Theresa May has abandoned her plan to make visitors from ‘high risk’ countries pay a £3,000 bond before they are allowed into the UK.

The embarrassing climb down is thought to have been forced on the Home Secretary by Nick Clegg, who threatened to block it.

It was Mr Clegg who originally trailed the idea of asking people seeking an entry visa to deposit a bond, but he suggested it as an option open to visitors planning a short visit for a special occasion who wanted their visa applications fast tracked.

Instead, the Home Secretary proposed that all visitors from five countries – India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Ghana – seeking six month visas should pay £3,000 in cash before their arrival in the UK. The money would be returned if they left before their visa expired, but confiscated if they overstayed.

Nick Clegg told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme earlier in the year that “I am absolutely not interested in a bond which becomes an indiscriminate way of clobbering people who want to come to this country.” And in September the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, claimed that Mr Clegg’s original proposal had been misinterpreted “in a much more negative way.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “The government has been considering whether we pilot a bond scheme that would deter people from overstaying the visa. We have decided not to proceed.”

The climb down follows close on Mrs May’s announcement that there would be no repeat of the Home Office’s much criticised decision to send vans into racially mixed areas of London with advertisements telling illegal immigrants to “go home or face arrest.” There was further controversy last month when the Home Office sent text messages to suspect illegal immigrants, some of which were sent to the wrong people.

Labour’s shadow immigration minister, David Hanson, said: “It seems David Cameron's Government can't get anything right when it comes to dealing with illegal immigration. Chasing headlines followed by confusion and U-turn is no way to manage an effective and robust immigration policy that works for all concerned.”