good afternoon. the government will set out its plans for cutting legal migration this afternoon. latest figures showed it hit a record high last year, with almost three quarters of a million more people arriving in the uk than leaving. the prime minister rishi sunak has been under pressure over the issue and today in the commons, his new home secretary james cleverley is expected to announce the minimum salary for skilled workers coming from overseas will be significantly increased. our political correspondent ione wells reports. the population grew by about 1% last year, the fastest rate since the 19605 year, the fastest rate since the 1960s baby boom. this time it was driven by international migration, which ministers have pledged to reduce. , . ., ., reduce. i m very clear that the levels of reduce. i m very clear that the levels of net reduce. i m very clear that the levels of net migration - reduce. i m very clear that the levels of net migration are - reduce. i m
or more if the going rate for theirjob is higher than that. now, from next spring, as we ve been hearing, that minimum salary threshold will rise to £38,700. but there are exceptions in what are called shortage occupations, jobs where there are lots of vacancies which can t be filled by local people. well, not easily, anyway. and since last year, the sector which has seen the most workers come in by that route is, of course, health and social care. the numbers are remarkable. in the year to september, 66,000 people got a conventional skilled worker visa, but in the same period, 144,000 people got a health and care visa, mostly to work in care homes. but many of the foreign workers bring close family with them, too. so if you add dependents to the skilled workers, and the numbers rises to 117,000. but in health and care, the combined figure goes up to 318,000. now that s an additional 174,000 dependants who d no longer be able to come unless the worker earns more than £38,70
northern england, more cloud and the odd shower or a splash of rain. i will have all the details later. it s tuesday 25th june. the bbc has been told that the gambling commission is considering whether more police officers are involved in alleged betting on the date of the general election. four conservatives and a police officer assigned to the protection of rishi sunak are known to be facing inquiries. scotland yard has denied a report that it leaked the names of some of those under investigation. here s our political correspondent, iain watson. did you have inside information when you placed your bet on the election date? i made a statement. it s been nearly two weeks since this aide to the prime minister who s also a conservative candidate said he d made a huge error ofjudgement in betting on the date of the general election. another candidate and two members of the conservative party staff are also being investigated by the gambling commission. last night, interviewe
daniel hagari has said that israeli forcies rescued hostages from hamas whilst under fire. this morning at 11am israeli special forces conducted a complex rescue mission and successfully rescued four of our hostages from hamas captivity in gaza. noa argamani, almog meirjan, shlomi ziv and andri kozlov. they are back home in israel. they are alive, they are well. they will undergo medical examination and will soon be reunited with their families in the hospital. noa, almog, andri and shlomi were rescued after 246 days in hamas captivity after they were brutally kidnapped from the nova music festival on the 7th of october. this was a high risk, complex mission, based on precise intelligence, conducted in daylight, in two separate buildings deep inside gaza. while underfire, underfire inside the buildings, under fire on the way out from gaza, our forces rescued our hostages. israeli forces have been preparing for this rescue mission for weeks. they underwent intensive training.
of fact checkers busy here at bbc verify. let s start with a claim that s dominated the debate this week. angela rayner and the labour party, keir starmer confirmed this earlier this week, they are going to put up your taxes by £2,000. no we won t. that s a lie. by £2,000 per working household. penny, your government have raised taxes. crosstalk. we have, and we hated putting the taxes up. we ve looked at this a lot in the last few days and the figure is misleading because the £2,000 is over four years and the figures the conservatives have used to calculate it are dubious. both the conservatives and labour are promising not to increase income tax, national insurance or vat during the next parliament. obviously there s a lot of politics in this too, but when it comes to the facts, that s where we re at. there was also a big claim that cuts are coming when it comes to public spending, whoever gets the keys to number ten. there s £18 billion of cuts coming down the line agr