Authorities call for tougher laws

LONDON (AP):

British authorities yesterday announced plans to toughen immigration laws as the government tried to regain the initiative after spectacular electoral gains last week by a populist party that wants to curb migration and leave the European Union.

The proposed changes would make it easier to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes, increase fines on companies that use illegal labour, and force private landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants. Temporary migrants would also be forced to pay for some health care.

The measures were announced at the start a new parliamentary session in a speech written by the government but delivered, as British constitutional protocol requires, by Queen Elizabeth II. The address is known as the Queen's Speech and is conducted with much ceremonial pageantry.

The speech came days after the populist United Kingdom Independence Party won about a quarter of the vote in local elections last week across different parts of the country, sending shock waves through the mainstream political parties.

Before the Queen's Speech, Prime Minister David Cameron used a Twitter post to promote his agenda for the new parliamentary session, saying it contained measures on "growth, immigration, pensions, consumer rights and social care" and was designed for "people who work hard and want to get on".

On immigration, the government said its new measures would aim to stop immigrants from using public services to which they are not entitled, make it harder to appeal against deportation, regulate access to health care for immigrants and prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses.

Full Caption: Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron (left) with Leader of the Opposition Ed Milliband walk from the House of Commons through the central lobby towards the House of Lords to hear Britain's Queen Elizabeth II deliver the Queen's Speech to Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in London last Wednesday. The Queen's Speech outlines her government's legislative plans for the forthcoming parliamentary year that her lawmakers will debate, vote and enact on.