Plans to charge UK visitors to fund more border guards
Labour plans to charge tourists from the US and 55 other countries £10 in order to fund 1,000 more border guards should it get into power.
Under the proposals to be announced by shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, nationals in countries enjoying a ‘visa waiver’ system of fast-track permission to enter the UK will be hit with a charge of around £10 per visit.
It says this fee would ‘more than cover the £45m cost of the additional staff’, reports the Guardian.
And it claims around 5.5m travellers a year could face the new fee including Americans, Australians and Canadians.
Labour claims tourism experts do not anticipate the charge, which is similar to the amount the US charges for the same service, will put off tourists.
Cooper is due to say: "Under (home secretary) Theresa May, basic checks are just not being done, and that is undermining confidence in the whole system.
"The number of people stopped and turned away at the border has halved. A smaller proportion of people absconding at the border are being found. And we recently discovered 175,000 failed asylum seekers may not be removed because the department has ‘limited resources’."
Labour wants all visa waiver arrangements to be converted to the electronic version introduced this year for visitors from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman for visa-free stays of up to six months.
Home secretary Theresa May said the proposals would only apply to around 230,300 people, and could pay for only 59 border staff.
Diane
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