Rishi Sunak facing Tory revolt over record immigration figures

The New Conservatives group of 35 right-wing Tory MPs said Thursday’s figures were ‘existential’ for the party

Rishi Sunak was facing a major Tory rebellion after net migration to the UK soared to a record high.

Senior MPs blasted the “embarassing” immigration figures and called on the prime minister to “urgently” bring in measures to bring overall numbers down.

Official figures showed net migration in 2022 hit 745,000, a huge upward revision from an earlier estimate of 606,000.

And the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that in the year to June, a total of 1.2 million people arrived to live in the UK, leaving overall net migration at 672,000.

The figures mean the population of England and Wales is now growing at the fastest rate since 1962.

Former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said he was “embarrassed” about the “absolutely extraordinary” net migration figure.

“This is a phenomenally high level with economic consequences,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, adding that excess immigration was to blame for forecasts of shrinking GDP per capita.

He agreed that the figure pointed to a serious political failure in controlling Britain’s borders post-Brexit.

“I’m embarrassed that we haven’t achieved what we set out to achieve,” Sir Jacob said.

And the New Conservatives group of 35 right-wing Tory MPs said Thursday’s figures were “existential” for the party and called for urgent action.

“At the last election, every Conservative MP was elected on a solemn promise to reduce net migration, which in 2019 stood at 229,000 per year,” the group said in a statement.

It called for a “comprehensive package” of measures today to bring migration below the 229,000 mark before the next election. In a warning to the under-fire PM, the group said: “We will assess any such package and report publicly on whether it will meet the promise made to the electorate.”

The group said: “The prime minister, chancellor, and new home secretary must show that they stand by the promises on which we were elected to parliament. We must act now.

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during the Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

“The word ‘existential’ has been used a lot in recent days but this really is ‘do or die’ for our party. Each of us made a promise to the electorate. We don’t believe that such promises can be ignored.”

Mr Sunak is facing mounting pressure to deliver on a 2019 manifesto pledge to bring the number of people migrating to Britain down – a pledge made when the figures were less than a third of the level they are today.

Right-winger Miriam Cates said the government had “no democratic consent” for the current level of migration while New Conservative chairman Danny Kruger said it risked “threatening community cohesion”.

Senior Tory Henry Smith told The Independent the “unsustainable numbers” of immigrants “put intolerable pressure on housing, transportation and public services”.

“In mitigation they of course include BNO passport holders and the Ukrainian scheme and come before the effect of the new Nationality & Borders Act, however clearly more needs to happen to bring net migration down,” the MP added.

And Conservative MP David Jones said the figures were “very troubling”, calling for Mr Sunak to consider an overall annual cap on migration numbers.

The deputy chief of the Tories’ European Research Group (ERG) told The Independent that the government should stop all students bringing family member “and make sure they return after their studies”.

As the latest bout of Tory infighting over migration erupted, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper stuck the boot in, saying the figures showed “the scale of utter Tory failure on immigration”.

In May, the ONS estimated that net migration stood at 606,000, a figure Mr Sunak described as “too high”, adding: “I want to bring them down.”

However, in a bombshell revelation, the Office for National Statistics has now revised its estimate for 2022’s net migration figure to 745,000, meaning Thursday’s figure represents a slight dip.

Mr Sunak’s spokesman said the PM is still working toward the manifesto commitment and indicated that further measures to curb net migration could be introduced.

He cited the government’s May decision to bar students coming to the UK from bringing dependents and said “we are looking at other areas where we can make further reductions”.

Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, also a member of the New Conservatives, said the net migration surge was “completely unacceptable”.

“We must take drastic action now to bring legal migration down, as well as do whatever we must to stop the boats,” Mr Gullis added.

Ex-levelling up secretary Simon Clarke said the net migration figure was “unsustainable both economically and socially”, adding that there is “no mandate” for it.

He called for an “urgent change of approach”, including hiking the earnings threshold for visa applications, cutting the shortage occupations list and supporting more British workers into jobs.

The latest ONS figures showed almost all of the net migration to the UK was driven by non-EU citizens. The increase was mainly due to migrants coming for work, predominantly those coming on health and social care visas.

In the year to June, the top five non-EU nationalities migrating to the UK were Indian, Nigerian, Chinese, Pakistani and Ukrainian.

And people arriving via humanitarian routes such as Ukrainian refugees and Hong Kong citizens decreased from 19 per to 9 per cent of the total over the same period.

Home secretary James Cleverly, who replaced Suella Braverman last week, brushed off the increase in migration. He said: “This figure is not showing a significant increase from last year’s figures and is largely in line with our own immigration statistics.”

“The government remains completely committed to reducing levels of legal migration while at the same time focusing relentlessly on our priority of stopping the boats,” Mr Cleverly added.

Thursday’s figures show a total of 40,386 people crossed the channel in small boats in the 12 months to June.

As well as concerns over the net migration figure, Mr Sunak is under intense pressure to deliver on his “stop the boats” pledge.

The PM’s plans faced a major setback when the Supreme Court ruled a scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda unlawful.

He is now pinning his hopes on a new treaty with the African country which he hopes will address judges’ concerns. Mr Sunak is also planning to pass legislation ruling Rwanda a “safe” country to get the deportation scheme up and running.

Pressure to “stop the boats” will also mount after a man and a woman drowned on Wednesday when a small boat trying to cross the Channel to the UK capsized just after leaving the French coast.

One person was airlifted to safety while at least 57 others were rescued by boat and taken to the French town of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Several of those rescued were suffering from hypothermia, the authorities said.

The boat reportedly got into difficulty in French waters shortly after 1pm (local time) and drowned.

The last Channel deaths were reported on 12 August when six Afghans drowned after their boat capsized. That was the worst small boat accident since 24 November 2021, when at least 27 people died in an overloaded boat.

More than 27,200 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year, against a record 45,000 in 2022, according to British authorities.