Mainstream British media said May would pitch immigration strictures and trim certain welfare benefits for pensioners when she unveiled her pledges later Thursday for Britain's snap June 8 election.

Employers seeking non-EU workers for skilled jobs would face a doubling of the so-called skills charge and migrant workers would be asked to pay more into the National Health Service, according to the BBC.

The extra revenue gathered would flow into skills training for British workers. The skills charge sees companies fined when they employ migrants from outside the EU. The BBC said May is also planning to implement a reduction of immigration from EU nations, once Britain has finalized its divorce from the bloc. That amounted to the "end of freedom of movement, " a key tenet of open-borders Europe, said the BBC, quoting an unnamed source.

Addressing a G20 trade union meeting in Berlin on Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Britain that ending free movement of people "will have its price." Merkel said London should not attempt to stipulate "there's a cap of 100,000 or 200,000 EU citizens, more aren't allowed into Britain - perhaps researchers as well, but no others, please."

May outlines other pledges

Writing in The Sun newspaper, May said she was "determined to cut the cost of living for ordinary working families, keep taxes low and to intervene when markets are not working as they should." The Telegraph newspaper said May would also stick to the conservative government's pledge to cut the corporation tax to 17 percent by 2020.

People who currently receive free care in their home would be charged more, and funding for universal free school lunches for young children would be diverted to other educational tasks. May heads into the election against the opposition center-left Labour with opinion surveys indicating that she could win by a landslide.

Courtesy: DW