Boris Johnson attacks 'cynical' Tory manifesto promise on immigration

He said the immigration policy on which he stood as an MP was unachiveable inside the EU

Boris Johnson MP, former Mayor of London and leading Vote Leave campaigner, speaks at Armada House in Bristol (PA)

Boris Johnson has branded his own manifesto’s policy on immigration “cynical”, arguing that it is impossible to achieve inside the European Union.

The former mayor of London said the pledge to bring immigration numbers down to the “tens of thousands” rather than the hundreds of thousands was unachievable in the current circumstances.

He branded the policy, which was included in the Tory manifesto and on which he stood as an MP last year, a “mistake”.

New immigration figures out today show net migration has risen to 333,000 in 2015 – the highest level on record. Of that, 184,000 people came to Britain from the EU, a record number.

Mr Johnson said the figures showed “the scandal of the promise made by politicians repeatedly that they can cut immigration to the tens of thousands and then to throw their hands up in the air and say there’s nothing they can do because Brussels has taken away our control of immigration”.

“People deserve to think that their politicians are able to determine [immigration] and have some say in the matter,” he told BBC News.

“If they elect them on a manifesto to bring it down to the tens of thousands then I think they have a right to see that pledge fulfilled.

“What I think is cynical and unacceptable is to say that you can fulfill that pledge when manifestly you can’t because of the EU regime. The only way to sort it out is to take back control

“I do think that it was a mistake to say to people that we could control immigration and bring it down to the tens of thousands when in the EU system we simply do not have the tools to do so.”

The manifesto promise to cut immigration was included in the Tory manifesto in 2010 and 2015. Conservative backbenchers warned against dropping the pledge.

In 2010 Mr Cameron said of manifesto: “This is our contract with you. I want you to read it and – if we win the election – use it to hold us to account. If we don't deliver our side of the bargain, vote us out in five years' time.”

The Prime Minister won some changes to EU migration rules in his renegotiation of British membership terms of the union. He achieved tapered reductions in-work benefits for EU migration, a weaker policy than he had initially promised.

Mr Cameron claimed that such benefits were “pull factor” for migration.

Labour ahs suggested that areas which are in receipt of high immigration from the EU should be sent additional funds by the bloc to help prop up public services.

Leader Jeremy Corbyn has suggested EU-wide minimum wage regulations tied to the cost of living in order to reduce demand to move to Britain from people looking for work in other EU countries.