Tory MPs urge Rishi Sunak to drastically cut immigration ahead of next election
Rishi Sunak faces a split in the Tory party over his migration policy, ITV News Correspondent Romilly Weeks reports
A group of red wall Tory MPs have called on Rishi Sunak to cut net migration by almost 400,000 people, warning the prime minister that he risks losing hundreds of thousands of voters if he fails to act before the next election.
The New Conservatives group of backbench MPs has published an alternative manifesto, piling the pressure on Mr Sunak to ban temporary visas for care workers and limit the number given to students.
Made up of 25 Conservative MPs, including the Party's deputy chairman Lee Anderson and backbencher Miriam Cates, the group has offered a series of proposals that it says will drastically cut the "destabilising" impact of "mass migration".
Members aim to put pressure on Mr Sunak to stick to the 2019 manifesto pledge that "there will be fewer lower-skilled migrants and overall numbers will come down".
Net migration was 606,000 last year, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
In the report, written by Ipswich MP Tom Hunt, MPs tell the prime minister that a promise to reduce immigration formed a key plank of Boris Johnson’s 2019 victory, which saw the Tories make sweeping gains in former Labour heartlands or so-called “red wall” seats.
The group says the current post-Brexit system has been “too lenient” and is not working, saying that “mass migration is having destabilising economic and cultural consequences”.
On the issue of visas for care workers, the report says: “Visa eligibility for both care workers and senior care workers were introduced as ‘temporary’ measures to address post-pandemic labour shortages.
“They were added to the Shortage Occupation List ‘in response to pandemic pressures’.
“Neither measure has yet been brought to a close, despite the abatement of the pandemic and its associated consequences.”
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The group calls it “encouraging” that the Illegal Migration Bill, currently in the Lords, contains plans for an annual cap on refugees who come to the UK through safe and legal routes.
The report suggests that a “cap of 20,000 would offer a number that, excluding Hong Kongers and Ukrainians, exceeds the total number of people granted asylum or resettled in the UK in any given year since 2002.
“This cap could then be lifted in order to respond to an unforeseen emergency, such as a natural disaster or a war.”
Between 2014 and 2022, about 54,000 people were resettled or relocated to the UK under refugee schemes.
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The MPs also call for the government to “reserve university study visas for the brightest international students by excluding the poorest performing universities from eligibility criteria”.
“A study visa that is blind to the rigour of university courses is also blind to the earning potential, or even employability, of graduates who can then go on to apply for Graduate work visas.”
In making the call, the report argues that immigration policy “should not be used to prop up the finances of underperforming universities”.
It is the latest sign of backbench pressure on the prime minister to curb immigration ahead of the next general election, expected before January 2025.
But speaking at a press briefing in Westminster, the members of New Conservatives insisted they were not rebel Tory MPs and they support Mr Sunak as prime minister.
Mr Hunt said: "I don't see this as undermining the Prime Minister at all. I see it as a helpful contribution to the debate."
He said migration was one of the biggest topics on the doorsteps as he argued it was "disparaging" to label people "xenophobic" for being concerned about annual net migration levels being past the 500,000 mark.
Mr Hunt played down any suggestion that the report represented a challenge to the Prime Minister, telling BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “This is a constructive document. We’ve finally got back control of our immigration system.
“We’ve ended EU free movement. I think it’s healthy to have a level of debate within the parliamentary party about the future of our immigration policy and we’re fully supportive of the Prime Minister.”
He also rejected suggestions that some of the proposals, particularly related to the care sector, could undermine already short-staffed areas.
“We’ve got to move away from this addiction to cheap labour from abroad. We’ve got to invest in our own workforce,” he said.
Party colleague Tim Loughton gave the document a more mixed reception, telling the same programme he understood the frustrations and that “in the longer term, the principle is right”.
But he warned: “We have got a shortage of people in this country, particularly in the care industry, particularly in hospitality.
“It’s not as simple as just putting the salary thresholds up as well. There’s quite a lot of skilled but lower paid people that we need coming into this country.”
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