Rishi Sunak announces migrant cap to be voted on by MPs every year if Conservatives form next government
3 June 2024, 22:49
Rishi Sunak has said that MPs will set a cap on the number of migrants entering the UK each year if voters keep the party in power at the General Election.
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The Prime Minister said that the independent migration advisory committee will give a recommendation for the number of immigrants allowed to come to the UK.
This would be considered by ministers, with MPs then getting to vote on the exact figure. Mr Sunak said that he wanted the level of migration to fall every year over the next Parliament.
The Conservatives added that the migration advisory committee "must consider both the costs and benefits of migration".
Net migration to the UK has hit record highs in recent years, despite pledges to bring down arrivals. The government has said that it has brought in several measures to reduce legal migration.
Nigel Farage, who on Monday announced he would stand for Parliament for Reform UK, said that the July 4 vote would be the "immigration election".
Labour has said it is also looking to reduce the reliance immigration, but refused to set a specific target.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told LBC's Lewis Goodall that "having seen the way the Conservatives have done that repeatedly, it's just not the sensible way to do it."
Ben Kentish weighs up migration plans of Conservatives and Labour
Announcing the migrant cap on Monday evening, Mr Sunak said: "We have taken bold action to cut the number of people coming to this country. The plan is working but migration levels are still too high, so we are going further."
He also claimed that Labour plan to scrap the Rwanda scheme would "make the UK a global magnet for illegal immigrants".
For their part, Labour have accused the Tories of having repeatedly broken their promises” to tackle migration.
Net migration - the number of people coming into the UK minus the people leaving the country - stood at 685,000 in the year to December 2023, according to a provisional estimate by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The same figure for the previous year was 764,000, which has been revised upwards from a previous estimate of 745,000 now that more complete data is available.
The rise in the number of people emigrating from the UK long-term has been driven largely by increased emigration from non-EU nationals, particularly among those who initially arrived on a study visa, the ONS said.
Non-EU immigration for work rose to 423,000 in the year to December 2023, from 277,000 a year earlier, replacing study as the main reason for long-term migration.
More than four in ten people moving to the UK for work last year came from India or Nigeria, most of them in the health and social care sector.
The number of people arriving from outside of the EU as dependants of those on long-term work visas was higher last year than the the number of main applicants, at 219,000 and 204,000 respectively.
