Robert Jenrick has hit out at soaring migration, pledging to introduce urgent measures to tackle the “abuse” of the visa system.
While he reiterated an old pledge to crack down on the number of student dependents coming to the UK, Jenrick did not announce any tangible new measures in his statement.
Responding to an urgent question from Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Jenrick said: that soaring migration “places untold pressure on housing, supply, public services and make successful integration virtually impossible”.
He continued: “As the Prime Minister and Home Secretary have repeatedly made clear, this is far too high, and the Government remains committed to reducing levels of legal migration in line with the manifesto commitment.
WATCH: Richard Tice on migration figures
“EverysingleConservativeMPstoodonit2019 and it is theexpresswishesoftheBritishpublic, astheyhavearticulatedateverysinglegeneralelectioninthelast30years.
“Earlierthisyear,wetookactiontotackleanunforeseenandsubstantialriseinthenumberofstudentsbringingdependentsintotheUKtoroughly150,000.
“ThismeansthatfromcoursesstartinginJanuary,studentsontaughtpostgraduatecourseswillnolongerhavetheabilitytobringdependents.Onlystudentsondesignatedpostgraduateresearchprogrammeswillbeabletobringthosedependents.Thiswillhaveatangibleeffectonnetmigration.”
He said the Government will introduce “further substantive measures” to tackle migration in the coming weeks.
But responding, Cooper said: “Where is the Home Secretary, and what on earth is going on?
“The media was briefed that he was going to make a statement on net migration yesterday or today, but nothing. and he is nowhere.
“The Immigration Minister has been everywhere, madly briefing all of his ideas, but who speaks for the Government?
“Net migration figures are now three times the level that they were at the 2019 election when the Conservatives promised to reduce them, and that includes a 65 per cent increase in work migration this year.
“That reflects a complete failure by the conservatives on both the economy and on immigration.
“The Immigration Minister is going to be furious when he discovers who has been in charge of the immigration system for the last 13 years.”
Figures from the Office for National Statistics published last week showed that net migration soared to 745,000 last year, a record figure.
This came just one week after the Government’s flagship plan to tackle illegal migration, the Rwanda pact, was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court.
Backbench MPs are growing increasingly frustrated with the Government’s failure to tackle the problem, despite manifesto pledges to cut numbers.
The figures represent a dramatic increase from pre-Brexit immigration levels, with net migration for the year ending June 2015 – the year before the UK voted to leave the EU – at 336,000.
Conservative MP Sir John Hayes demanded the Government introduce “immediate” measures to restrict the number of dependents coming to the UK, saying they bring “more economic cost than benefits”.
He added: “Will he recognise that in doing so, that we are relying on him to sort this out because we know that he shares our concern, that it’s time for British workers for British jobs”.
