United
Kingdom Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has urged his home country to scrap
plans to make certain overseas visitors to Britain pay a £3,000 bond to obtain
tourist visas because it sends out the “wrong message” about the country. In
his second attack on the policy within 48 hours, Cable told the Financial Times
that Number 10’s (Prime Minister’s residence) determination to press on with
the visitor bond pilot in November was “disappointing.”
According to Cable, it is very disappointing and it has not been agreed across the coalition and
it seems to send the wrong message that Britain is closed for business.
There
was an international outcry in June when it emerged that the government was
planning to ask some visitors from India, Nigeria, Pakistan Kenya, Sri Lanka
and Bangladesh to pay a £3,000 cash bond in return for a visitor visa to allow
them to stay in the UK for up to six months.
The Home
Office said the scheme would deter people from overstaying, but governments in
Delhi and Abuja expressed “strong displeasure” about the plans.
Cable
added that the operation for the visa scheme, together with the bonds on these
Commonwealth countries is simply having the effect of driving bona fide
visitors who want to spend and to do business in the UK to France and Germany.
Cable
had on Sunday also warned that George’s Osborne’s mortgage guarantee scheme
could stoke a housing bubble while dubbing a mobile billboard campaign telling
illegal immigrants to “go home or face arrest” as “stupid and offensive”.
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