08 May 2024 , 07:32
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Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick has delivered a savage swipe at Rishi Sunak - by releasing his own 30-point immigration plan.
The former Immigration Minister, who quit last year in a row over the PM's Rwanda Bill, demanded the "ineffective" Home Office is broken up. He claimed the department is "incapable" of securing the UK's borders and said the public's wish for lower immigration has been "betrayed".
Mr Jenrick was previously one of Mr Sunak's closest allies, but is becoming a darling of the Tory right after his spell as a Home Office minister. He is widely expected to mount a leadership challenge following the general election, and his intervention further undermines a PM under fire after last week's local election drubbing.
Draconian measures Mr Jenrick demanded included a cap on health and care visas at 30,000 - despite a massive shortage of staff in these sectors. Mr Jenrick also called for the graduate route for international students to be scrapped.
Launching a report he co-authored for the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), Mr Jenrick said: "It would be unforgivable if the Government did not use the time before the general election to undo the disastrous post-Brexit liberalisations that betrayed the express wishes of the British public for lower immigration."
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He called for the policies in the report to be brought in "immediately", claiming: "These policies could be implemented immediately and would consign low-skilled mass migration to the past. Immigration is consistently one of the top concerns of voters and they deserve a department whose sole mission is controlling immigration and securing our borders. For far too long, the Home Office has proven incapable of doing that."
Official estimates published in November indicated the net migration figure - the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving Britain - reached a record 745,000 in 2022.
Demanding the Home Office is split up, the report said: "The Home Office has fallen short on this front. It has proven itself simply too unwieldy to function effectively, and has been undermined by high levels of churn and a lack of institutional knowledge. We therefore need to split up the Home Office."
A Government spokesperson said: "The Prime Minister and Home Secretary have been clear that current levels of migration are far too high. That is why the Government announced a plan to cut the number of migrants that would have come last year to the UK by 300,000 - the largest reduction ever.
"This plan is working, with the latest statistics showing applications across three major visa categories are down by 24%. Our approach is fair - reducing immigration and ensuring businesses invest in and recruit from the domestic workforce, whilst prioritising the overseas workers and students who will contribute significantly to our economy."