TOUGH new immigration rules are tearing Southampton families apart and must be changed, city MPs have warned.

Labour MPs John Denham (Southampton Itchen) and Alan Whitehead (Southampton Test) attacked a requirement that citizens must earn £18,600 before they can bring in spouses or partners.

The pair said the threshold – for people from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) – was far too high, given average salaries in most of the country.

Mr Whitehead even revealed how one of his constituents who had worked in the US and married an American woman faced the prospect of his wife and child having to live outside the UK for years.

Mr Denham carried out a survey at one Southampton mosque which found no fewer than 95 per cent of people earn less than £18,000 a year.

Now the MPs are calling on the Government to order an independent review into the rules, introduced last summer.

Mr Whitehead said: “UK citizens coming back, after having married abroad, are finding that their spouse and child are stranded, unable to get into the UK.

“One of my constituents, having worked in the USA and married his American wife there, told me that he is now faced with the prospect of trying to get a job in the UK that will pay £18,000.

“His wife and child may remain outside the UK for several years – even though he has done everything right in terms of his life and work and all other factors.”

Referring to Mr Denham’s survey, Mr Whitehead added: “The rules are effectively banning an entire community from the rights that we would give to any other community in this country.”

Yesterday the Daily Echo revealed how Inodeel Naizai faces being unable to see his new son or daughter for at least two years.

The Afghan national, who lives in Derby Road, Southampton, made an impassioned plea for politicians to help reunite his family by scrapping the controversial rules, which were introduced to reduce the number of spouses, partners and elderly relatives coming to Britain from outside the EEA.

The 28-year-old said: “Please help us so we can be a family.”

On top of the £18,600 figures, British citizens must have an extra income of £3,800 for the first child sponsored and £2,400 more for each further child.

This month, the rules were condemned in a report by the all-party parliamentary group on migration, which set out the “anguish” for families.

It also found that high-earning business leaders, and people wanting to return home for their retirement, had also been barred from entering Britain. Skilled professionals, including NHS consultants, who wished to care for an elderly relative – at their own expense – were unable to do so.

Mr Whitehead said: “The inquiry also found that the new rules may have resulted in unanticipated costs to the public purse.”

But the Home Office said that the rules were needed to ensure that people coming to the UK would not be a burden on the taxpayer.