The last Conservative election manifesto pledged to bring the number below 229,000 a year, while David Cameron had promised to bring it down to the tens of thousands.
The Tories are being humiliated for breaking yet another pledge. This time it’s over the party’s repeated failure to keep its promises to reduce migration figures, with one minister enduring a car crash interview with a BBC presenter.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick was told his government had “failed” to keep its promise to reduce the numbers of people moving to the UK and was asked “why should people trust you” after home secretary James Cleverly unveiled the Tories’ latest attempt to slash net migration.
According to ONS figures released last month, net migration had reached 672,000 in the 12 months to June 2023, while Annual net migration to the United Kingdom hit a record of 745,000 last year.
The last Conservative election manifesto pledged to bring the number below 229,000 a year, while David Cameron had promised to bring it down to the tens of thousands.
Cleverly set out a number of measures which he says will reduce migration numbers, including raising the minimum salary threshold for foreign skilled workers to £38,700 pounds from its current level of £26,200 pounds, reform the list of jobs where exceptions are made due to shortages, and toughen rules on whether workers can bring their families.
He says that the latest proposals will bring net migration numbers down by 300,000.
On BBC Breakfast this morning, John Kay told Jenrick: “When your cabinet colleague David Cameron was elected back in 2010, he told us that you’d get migration numbers down to the tens of thousands.
“Thirteen years of Conservatives in government, last year net migration at 745,000. Why should people watching this morning trust you on immigration and to bring down the figures?”
Jenrick insisted that the measures would work and said the government was prepared to go further.
Kay hit back: “It was in your election manifesto in 2019, a lot of people trusted you to deliver on that. A lot of people voted for Brexit thinking you would bring immigration under control.
“Isn’t this rush of policies now, ahead of a general election, an admission that you failed?”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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