COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Home Secretary calls on the PM to deliver 2019 manifesto pledge so that UK doesn’t ‘forget how to do things for ourselves’



Suella Braverman will demand that Rishi Sunak deliver the Tory manifesto promise to reduce net migration so that Britain does not forget how to “do things for ourselves”.

The Home Secretary will use a speech at the National Conservatism Conference on Monday to argue that “it’s not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration is unsustainable” amid a Cabinet split over the scale of immigration since the Brexit vote.

The Tories made a manifesto pledge in 2019 to bring down overall numbers, but the official figures are expected to show net migration close to 700,000 within weeks, with analysis suggesting that it could top one million this year.

Mrs Braverman’s intervention comes after days of criticism aimed at Mr Sunak from some Conservative MPs, many of them prominent supporters of Boris Johnson, who are unhappy that the Prime Minister abandoned a promise to scrap all EU laws by the end of 2023 and oversaw the loss of more than 1,000 Tory councillors at this month’s local elections.

Mr Sunak has put growing the economy and boosting the UK’s productivity, which has lagged behind other major economies for years, at the centre of his pitch to voters. However, the Government is struggling to convince workers who left jobs during the pandemic to return, and senior Tories fear that immigration is seen as a quick fix for vacancies.

In her speech on Monday, Mrs Braverman will say: “I voted and campaigned for Brexit because I wanted Britain to control migration. So that we all have a say on what works for our country. High-skilled workers support economic growth. Fact.

“But we need to get overall immigration numbers down. And we mustn’t forget how to do things for ourselves.

“There is no good reason why we can’t train up enough HGV drivers, butchers or fruit pickers. Brexit enables us to build a high-skilled, high wage economy that is less dependent on low-skilled foreign labour. That was our 2019 manifesto pledge and what we must deliver.”

However, there are Cabinet splits on the approach to bringing down legal migration.

Mrs Braverman has pushed for restrictions on the number of dependents that foreign students can bring to the UK, but the package is understood to have been watered down after resistance from Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary.

Some senior Cabinet ministers are also calling for an increase in the £26,000 salary limit needed for foreign work visas, deeming it too low – though no hard proposals have yet been drafted.

The final decision on how to restrict foreign students from bringing in dependents – which has soared in recent years – is understood to be with Mr Sunak now.

PM refuses to commit to migration level pledge



The prime minister has refused to explicitly commit to a Conservative promise to get net migration levels below where they were four years ago.

The Tory manifesto before the general election in 2019 promised that "overall numbers will come down".

Net migration - the number of people moving to the UK minus the number who leave - was 226,000 in the year to March 2019.

In the year to June 2022, net migration hit an all-time high of 504,000.

The latest number, for the year to December 2022, will be published next week - and is widely expected to be higher still.

Speaking to reporters en route to the G7 Summit in Japan, Rishi Sunak said: "I've inherited some numbers, I want to bring the numbers down."

As the numbers climb, he is maintaining a desire that they fall, but not explicitly below the level they were at when the initial promise was made.

"When it comes to legal migration, the key thing for people to know is we're in control of why people are here, the circumstances and the terms on which they are here, making sure they contribute, to public services like the NHS for example," Mr Sunak said.

"Those are all now part of our migration system and they weren't before," he added, in reference to Brexit - which means immigration policy is now decided solely at Westminster.

There is some evidence that the importance attached to cutting immigration has fallen for some people since the UK left the European Union, suggesting control over it, as well as how much of it there is, does really matter to some.

As I have written about here, there is quite a discussion going on within government about how to respond to next week's new net migration figure.

I am told the prime minister has not yet looked at it in detail. But he is likely to in the coming days, ahead of a government announcement which is expected to include a restriction on the dependents some foreign students can bring with them when they come to the UK to study.

Strikingly, when pressed on his instincts on legal migration, the prime minister repeatedly changed the subject to talk about illegal immigration instead - small boat crossings.

Net migration to UK hits record high



Net migration has hit a new record high, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In the year to December 2022, net migration is estimated to have hit a record 745,000, revised figures show.

The previous estimate for the year to December 2022 had been 606,000, but the ONS has since raised this in light of “unexpected patterns” in the behaviour of migrants.

The new figures also reveal that net migration to the UK stood at a provisional 672,000 in the year to June 2023, up from 607,000 in the previous 12 months.

The June 2023 figure is nearly three times the pre-Brexit average of 200,000 to 250,000 a year and blows apart the Government’s 2019 manifesto pledge to bring down the overall rate of net migration from its then level of 226,000.

The surge in net migration has contributed to the biggest annual increase in the population in England and Wales since 1962, a peak year for baby boomers.

According to the ONS, the population rose by 578,000, or one per cent, to 60.2 million in the year to mid-2022.

“Unlike in 1962, when the increase in population was largely because of a high number of births, the population increase in mid-2022 is mostly driven by an increase in net international migration,” said the ONS.

The surge has been fuelled by 1.4 million migrants granted visas primarily from outside the EU to enter the UK to study, work or escape conflict or oppression. The ONS estimated that 508,000 people emigrated.

The figures will intensify pressure on Rishi Sunak to introduce radical new measures to reduce the number of workers and their dependents being granted visas to live and work in the UK.

Ministers are considering banning health and care workers from bringing in dependents or restricting them to one per visa, increasing the minimum salary threshold that foreign workers must earn to qualify for a work visa from £26,200 to more than £30,000 and scrapping pay discounts for foreign staff in shortage occupations.

The figures come just a day after the budget watchdog warned the Prime Minister that his policies would not reduce net migration to its pre-pandemic levels before 2027.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said an extra 150,000 migrants would arrive in the next five years including 410,000 net migration in the run-up to the election next year. In total, immigration would add an estimated 1.5 million people to the population by 2028-29.

James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, said the migration figure was “not showing a significant increase” but “we are working across government on further measures to prevent exploitation and manipulation of our visa system”.

UK migration curbs see salary threshold hiked to £38,700 for foreign workers

Tougher visa rules should reduce migration by 300,000 a year - Cleverly

Robert Jenrick resigns as immigration minister over Rwanda legislation



Robert Jenrick has resigned as immigration minister, saying the government's emergency Rwanda legislation "does not go far enough".

He said "stronger protections" were needed to end "the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme".

The government said the bill, unveiled earlier, made clear in UK law Rwanda was a safe country for asylum seekers.

But it stops short of what some on the Tory right were demanding.

In his resignation letter to the prime minister, Mr Jenrick said: "In our discussions on the proposed emergency legislation you have moved towards my position, for which I am grateful.

"Nevertheless, I am unable to take the currently proposed legislation through the Commons as I do not believe it provides us with the best possible chance of success."

He added that the bill was "a triumph of hope over experience".

Mr Jenrick said the emergency legislation was the "last opportunity" to prove the government would do "whatever it takes" to stop small boat crossings.

"But in its current drafting it does not go far enough," he said.

He added: "I refuse to be yet another politician who makes promises on immigration to the British public but does not keep them."

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "It is a sign of the total chaos in the Tory party and the complete collapse of Rishi Sunak's leadership that even while he is sitting in the Commons for the announcement of his new Rwanda plan, his own immigration minister is resigning because he doesn't think it will work."

Ministers row back on salary threshold for family visa



The government has rowed back on plans to hike the salary needed to bring family members to the UK to £38,700 next spring.

The increase - from the current level of £18,600 - was announced earlier this month as part of a plan to lower legal migration.

But the new threshold will initially be set at £29,000, with further increases at unspecified dates thereafter.

Labour said the change showed "Tory government chaos".

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said ministers had failed to consult properly on the new threshold, adding: "it's no surprise they are now rowing back in a rush".

Ministers had been facing pressure over the issue in recent weeks, amid warnings the new visa rules would keep families apart.

The government unveiled a package of measures to lower legal migration earlier this month, after figures showed it hit record levels last year.

Official estimates show net migration - the difference between the number of people coming to and leaving the UK - rose to 745,000 in 2022.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said that, from next spring, most foreign workers would need to earn at least £38,700 to qualify for a UK skilled worker visa.

He added this same threshold would apply to the visa route that British or Irish citizens, or those settled in the UK, can use to bring their family members to the UK.

However, Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom has now confirmed the change of plan in answer to a parliamentary question.

He said the threshold would now rise to £29,000 in the spring, before then rising "in incremental stages" to give "predictability".

He said the plan was for it eventually to rise to £34,500 and then £38,700 - but no dates were given.

The Home Office has also confirmed that the anyone who wants to renew a family visa will be able to, without having to meet the new earnings threshold.

Number of asylum seekers removed from UK drops by half



The number of rejected asylum seekers and foreign offenders being removed from the UK has nearly halved in seven years, Home Office figures show.

The data revealed the number of enforced and voluntary returns from the UK were down from 40,000 in 2016 to 24,000 last year.

This comes despite a two-thirds increase in the past year in such removals which cover all foreign nationals who have been refused a right to remain in the UK

It follows Home Office data, published last month, which showed only one per cent of migrants who have arrived in small boats since 2020 have been deported, according to the figures.

The Home Office has returned 1,182 of the 111,833 migrants who have crossed the Channel over the past three years, according to information given to the Commons home affairs ­committee.

Even among Albanian migrants, who are easier to remove due to the country being deemed safe in UK law, 95 per cent of arrivals have not been ­removed.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, tweeted: “Returns of failed asylum seekers are down 50 per cent compared to the last Labour Government. Only five per cent of Albanians who came on small boats to the UK have been returned. £400m on the failing Rwanda plan and no-one sent.”