ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 investigates the changes made to the Tories’ immigration policy from 1979 to 1997. The more significant developments in the Tories’ approach to managing immigration are presented, with changes to policy considered using the theoretical framework expounded previously. Over four parliaments, and under two different leaders, the Conservatives held on to office for an uninterrupted period of nearly two decades. By the 1990s, the Conservative Party had switched its focus; no longer were the Tories so concerned by the family reunification route, instead, they turned their attention to asylum-seekers, of whom many were suspected to be fraudulent – a reaction to economic routes to the UK having previously been tightened up. Conservative policy was – to the frustration of ministers – a response to migrants entering the country under different labels.
