London, Nov 12 (IANS) British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, besieged by immigration issues six months ahead of elections, Thursday whittled down a list of jobs that are open to highly-skilled migrants, declaring: “Immigration will fall.”
Hospital consultants, civil engineers, aircraft engineers and ship’s officers are to be removed from a tightly-regulated list of skills which Britain needs to recruit from abroad because it cannot meet its needs from its own population.

Indians are among the top applicants for a limited number of jobs that are only open to highly-skilled workers from outside Europe under a Points Based System, but Brown’s Labour government has been attacked by opposition parties for allowing in too many immigrants.

Immigration is the hottest topic for British general elections, and has been ratcheted this year up by politicians, the media and far-right groups ahead of the next polls due by early June 2010.

Brown, backing up a controversial pledge to win “British jobs for British workers”, was expected to vow he will not allow Britain’s population to reach 70 million in the next 20 years on account of immigration, newspapers reported on the basis of a briefing.

Further, as Britain recovers from the recession, there will be better wages and more jobs for British residents, rather than a rush to recruit staff from overseas.

A spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party dismissed the pledges, saying: “What the government is doing is toughening up its rhetoric, but it’s not actually changing the policy very much.”