Rishi Sunak has lurched to the right on immigration – but it won’t solve his problems

Editorial: The prime minister has been pressured into a handbrake turn by noisy, right-wing Conservative MPs

The government has pressed the panic button (PA Wire)

The government has pressed the panic button after official figures last month showed that net migration has tripled since the 2019 election, rising to a record 745,000 in 2022 and 672,000 in the 12 months to June this year.

Rishi Sunak has been pressured into a handbrake turn by noisy, right-wing Conservative MPs and even ministers such as Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister – once a close ally of the prime minister – who has picked up the baton after Suella Braverman’s sacking.

The appointment of James Cleverly as her successor raised the hopes of centrist Tory MPs that a sensible approach to immigration would prevail. But the home secretary has now announced what he called “the biggest-ever reduction” in legal migration to reduce it by 300,000 on last year’s figure.