THE Conservatives will fuel the debate on immigration today by promising that people travelling to live and work in Britain will have to undergo checks for HIV/Aids and other diseases.

Those intending to come for more than 12 months, or to settle permanently, would have to undergo full medical tests, paid for by themselves in their home country and which took account of conditions there, The Times has learnt.

They will need an overall check-up, chest X-rays for tuberculosis and tests for hepatitis and HIV. Those with TB would automatically be precluded from entry. All other conditions will be dealt with as individual cases.

People who wanted to come for 6-12 months from a country where there is a high incidence of TB would have to undergo a chest X-ray, followed by tests if necessary. People coming for less than six months would not face a test unless they wanted to work in healthcare, childcare or teaching.

The checks, based on controls in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, would have to be conducted by medical practitioners approved by Britain.

More than 7,000 new cases of HIV were diagnosed in 2003, the highest ever and a 20 per cent rise in one year.

The Health Protection Agency said that 75 per cent of the 4,000 heterosexual cases came from sub-Saharan Africa — with more than half originating in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. Immigration is also blamed for a 20 per cent rise in TB in England and Wales in the past ten years. Britain is the only part of the European Union to see an increase over that period.

The Conservatives said last night that the policy aimed to minimise the risk of diseases such as TB and to protect access to the National Health Service. They quoted a report suggesting that 6,500 migrants with chronic hepatitis B infection enter Britain each year.

Des Browne, the Minister of State for Citizenship and Immigration, said that Labour’s five-year plan on immigration contained plans to screen for TB in applicants from high-risk areas. “The Tory policy is little more than a desperate attempt to catch up,” he said.

A review on imported infections and immigration, announced by the Government more than two years ago, has yet to be concluded. The Cabinet Office said last night that the work was helping to inform ministers daily, but that a date had not been set for publication. The Tories said that the review appeared to have been quietly buried.

Under the Conservative proposals, people coming to settle in Britain permanently from outside the EU will have to demonstrate that they have an acceptable standard of health, are unlikely to pose a danger to public health, impose high costs or demands on the health service and can undertake the work or study for which their visit is intended. The Conservatives have been considering today’s proposals for more than two years. Their announcement now will be seen as a sign that they are determined to keep immigration high on the agenda before the general election.

It is the one policy area where they clearly lead Labour, according to recent opinion polls. A Populus poll for The Times last week put the Conservatives eight points ahead of Labour on the issue. That was on the day Labour announced its own five-year plan on immigration and asylum. According to a poll for the BBC Newsnight programme last night, 82 per cent of those questioned supported stricter controls.

The Conservatives will assert that people will face a choice at the election: limited and controlled immigration under Michael Howard or unlimited immigration under Tony Blair.

The party highlighted yesterday remarks made by Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, at the weekend in which he appeared to say that he would welcome more immigrants and asylum-seekers to Britain.

The Tories issued figures from the Commons library and the Health Protection Agency which showed that, in 2002, there were four cases of TB per 100,000 people born in the United Kingdom, compared with 73 per 100,000 among those born abroad. Eighty per cent of people found to have heterosexually-acquired HIV in Britain in 2003 are thought to have been infected in Africa.

The Conservatives say that their proposals will be self- financing. Applicants will have to pay for their own checks and fees for permits and visas will be increased to cover any additional costs.

The plans will not affect applicants for asylum. The Conservatives say that people genuinely fleeing persecution should not be denied refuge because of their health.

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