Rishi Sunak has vowed to “clamp down” on immigration and conceded, in the face of growing Tory anger about his past performance, that there is “obviously a lot more to do” to reduce the record numbers of people immigrating to the UK.
Earlier this week, official figures showed net migration is running at a record high, prompting Boris Johnson, Suella Braverman and other rightwing Conservatives to attack Sunak for failing to honour the government’s 2019 Tory manifesto pledge to bring overall migration numbers down.
Sunak initially refused to comment when asked whether he would apologise for failing to meet this pledge, which was given by Johnson.
On Thursday, the Office for National Statistics revealed net migration into the UK peaked at 745,000 in the year to December 2022, meaning nearly three-quarters of a million more people legally immigrated to the UK than left the country.
This figure is three times higher than the levels seen before Brexit.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, the prime minister said: “There is obviously a lot more to do and that’s why we need to take action. I announced previously significant tightening up on the number of dependents that students can bring, which has seen a very striking rise over the past year or two.
“This represents the single biggest measure of restriction on legal migration that anyone’s announced in years. That should give people a sense of my determination to bring these numbers down.
“As we go over them, as we see other areas of abuse, we won’t hesitate to take action and clamp down,” he added.
The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, is understood to have worked up a plan designed to appease calls from rightwing Tories for the government to take action.
His plan is said to include proposals to scrap the shortage occupation list, a programme that allows foreign workers to be paid 20% below the going rate in roles where there is a shortage of skilled workers.
The government’s migration advisory committee has already recommended the abolition of the list amid fears it is being used to bring cheap foreign labour into the UK.
Downing Street refused to say what Sunak made of Jenrick’s proposals when asked by journalists, saying No 10 would not be getting into “running commentary on policy development”.
However, any attempt to bring down the number of skilled workers arriving in the UK is likely to be met with anger and resistance by people working in the NHS and social care, where there are chronic staff shortages.
Sunak tried to defend his immigration record by stressing there has been a fall in the number of people arriving by small boat across the Channel.
He said: “I’ve come into this job, I’ve had it for a year and I’ve already got the numbers down by a third, so I think people can trust me when I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to deliver on it.
“I need to finish the job and that means getting the Rwanda deal up and running. I’m prepared to do whatever is necessary to get that scheme operational.”
Sunak has pledged not to let a “foreign court” stop flights to Rwanda, with plans for a new treaty and emergency legislation to ensure the plan is legally watertight.
But it was the UK supreme court, rather than “a foreign court”, that dealt the latest blow to the government’s hopes of sending asylum seekers who arrive in the UK on a one-way flight to Rwanda.
Sunak also played down claims by Braverman that she had struck a deal with him to lend his leadership candidacy her support in exchange for key promises.
“Of course you have conversations with people when you are in a leadership election and not just Suella,” Sunak said.
Asked about whether she could produce proof of a deal, he said: “That’s a question for her. I’m getting on with actually delivering things.”
In further comments to the Mail on Sunday, Sunak also said that Jeremy Hunt’s recent tax-cutting autumn statement is the “start of a journey”, suggesting he is contemplating further tax cuts before the next general election, which is scheduled to be held no later than 28 January 2025.
He said the government will “do more than we can” on tax cuts. “I always said I wanted to cut people’s taxes, but first we had to get inflation under control and stabilise the economy,” Sunak said.
“We have now done that and it didn’t happen by accident. The chancellor and I took a set of decisions that weren’t easy, that we got a lot of flak for, that the Labour party opposed, in order to halve inflation and defy the sceptics.
“Everyone said we were going to have a recession this year in the UK (but) we have actually grown the economy. Because of that our economic policy can shift gears.”
He added: “This is the start of a journey. We will do more when we can, because I want to cut taxes, reward hard work, grow the economy and do so in a way that is responsible.”
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the 2p national insurance cut Hunt made in his statement will offset only a quarter of personal tax-raising measures announced by the government since 2021, which includes freezing allowances and national insurance thresholds.
The average UK household will be £1,900 poorer by the end of this parliament, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has predicted, with the top fifth of households in Britain projected to gain the most from Hunt’s tax cuts. It said they would benefit by £1,000 on average, five times the gains of the bottom 20%, who would be only £200 better off from measures that include a 2p cut in national insurance.
