Up to London and into the Commons for another week. After running through the weekends emails and other correspondence with my parliamentary team, I headed to the Chamber to hear the Home Secretary make a Statement on how the Government intended to reduce legal migration. James Cleverly gave MPs five ways he intended to achieve this. The first was to raise the minimum salary required for a foreign skilled worker to come to Britain, from its current level of £26,200 to £38,000 from next spring. The second was to increase the minimum £18,600 income required for a British citizen to bring a spouse or dependant into the UK on a family visa to the same threshold. Third, the immigration health surcharge would rise by 66 per cent from £624 to £1,035. Fourth, to review the current system which allows companies to pay foreign workers in areas where there is a shortage of labour 20 per cent below the going rate. And, fifth, to prevent international students from bringing dependants to the UK. Mr Cleverly's speech is on the website. While these steps are welcome, and are estimated to reduce the number of legal migrants by 300,000, they do not go far enough. The numbers are still unsustainable and we must, must start get those on out of work benefits back to work. Meanwhile, the culture secretary said she was concerned the planned nine per cent rise in the BBC licence fee was "very high" and that the BBC must remain "value for money". Hear, hear, I say to that. There are many now arguing that the licence fee should be abolished and the BBC left to fend for itself. I am tempted to agree but, having worked for the BBC for nine years, I do see the value in retaining a state broadcaster, but only if it changes its ways, and dramatically. The appalling bias shown in its coverage of Brexit, Covid and now the war in Gaza are just three examples of where the BBC has lost its way and is very poorly led. And, talking of Gaza, the Israeli military renewed calls for people to flee from southern Gaza as it widened its ground offensive and bombards targets across the Gaza Strip. With the Victims and Prisoners Bill running through to 2100, I attended a private meeting of Conservative MPs to discuss the situation regarding Rwanda. It was well attended, with firm views on what the direction of travel should be. Finally, at 2200, there were votes on the Bill, with the Government losing the vote on a Labour amendment concerning victims of the tainted blood scandal. And, along with more than 30 colleagues, I voted against a motion concerning the introduction of EVs. The motion was contrary to the PM's sensible announcement a short while ago to cut car manufacturers some slack on the move to ban the production of all diesel and petrol cars by 2030. This ill thought through subservience to a cult determined to impoverish the country is beyond comprehension. We don't even have the infrastructure for EVs, which are unaffordable and have to be recharged regularly. And, there's the cost of putting all this in place, which no one talks about and the ability to generate the power to make it all work. Whatever form of energy we have, it must be affordable, reliable and available.