MP, Labour's Home
Secretary, responding to today's ONS population figures,
said:
“These figures confirm the truth of the Tory legacy on
immigration. Their failed open borders experiment resulted in net
migration quadrupling to a peak of almost a million per year in
2023 even as they promised it would fall, and on their watch, in
the final year before the election, net migration was three times
higher than at the start of the last Parliament.
“Under the Tories, overseas recruitment shot up while training in
the UK was cut, lower skilled migration soared while the
proportion of UK residents in work plummeted, and hundreds of
thousands of people were given visas to arrive and stay in the UK
without any requirement on them to speak or learn English.
“Since the election, net migration has come steeply down, and as
part of the Government's Plan for Change, we have set out new
measures in the Immigration White Paper and have already changed
immigration rules to bring net migration down further, alongside
tighter controls on UK visa routes, and stronger requirements to
link the points-based immigration system to skills and training
obligations here in the UK, to boost our economy and bring
overseas recruitment down.
“To be successful, effective and fair, our immigration system
must be properly controlled and managed. Out of the chaos and
failure of the Tory past, that is what this
Government will deliver.”
Ends
Notes:
