Allowing migration to rocket was a 'fatal mistake', James Cleverly admits
Shadow Home Secretary insists 'wanting border control isn't racist' as he defends some of his measures to slash arrivals.
Allowing migration to rocket to record levels was a “fatal mistake”, James Cleverly has admitted.
The former home secretary warned that Labour “ideologically opposes border control” and that the party is a “soft touch” on immigration.
Mr Cleverly, who is running to be the next leader of the Conservatives, insisted “wanting border control isn’t racist” as he defended some of the measures he introduced to slash net migration.
The Conservatives were heavily criticised ahead of last month's election for overseeing record increases in net migration, which hit 685,000 last year and 764,000 in 2022.
The Shadow Home Secretary wrote in a Sunday newspaper op-ed: "I reformed our visa system to cut numbers within weeks.
"And we’re seeing the fruits of those changes in the latest data.
"Visas down. Illegal arrivals down. Small boat arrivals down.
“Labour ideologically opposes border control. But Conservatives know wanting border control isn’t racist.
“Getting migration down has to be one of our party’s central missions.
“If I’m elected leader, it will be.
“Allowing migration to rocket after Covid was a fatal mistake.”
Tom Tugendhat, another senior Conservative hoping to become the next leader, apologised for the party’s record on immigration.
He said he would aim to slash net migration to around 100,000 a year.
He added: "The reason I apologise is because we can see the effects, right? We can see the effects in communities across the United Kingdom.
"But this isn't just about pointing at the problem. It's about fixing it. And that's why what we really need is a massive economic change because we need Brits to be taking the jobs that we are talking about now."
But new Home Office figures indicate net migration is already falling.
The number of health and social care visas – dubbed a backdoor route into Britain – fell by 26 percent year-on-year to 89,085, with a sharp drop of 81 percent for the period April to June alone coinciding with a ban on dependants.
In a series of tough reforms announced in December, Mr Cleverly banned overseas care workers and foreign students from bringing their family members with them to the UK.
The salary threshold for skilled workers was also increased to £38,700.
The previous government aimed to slash the number of people arriving in Britain by 300,000 a year with the measures.
But new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has paused a planned increase in the salary threshold on those hoping to bring their family members to the UK.
This means foreign nationals will only need to earn £28,000 to bring their families to the UK.
Mr Cleverly also confirmed he will continue pushing Labour over a key hole in its plan to end the Channel migrant crisis.
He wrote: "As Shadow Home Secretary, I’ll keep asking Yvette Cooper: 'Where will you send failed asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran or Syria?'
"But Labour don’t have a plan — and I don’t think they care.
"A Conservative Party under my leadership would regain control of our borders.
"We’ll revive third safe country partnerships like Rwanda."
Home Office figures have revealed just 3 percent - 3,788 – have been deported since the crisis began in 2018, with the number falling this year compared with the final quarter of 2023.
And the scrapping of the Rwanda scheme has intensified fears it is now far harder to remove failed asylum seekers.
New statistics show 2,336 people were deported in the year to June.
But 89 percent of them were Albanian nationals, returned under an agreement signed by former prime minister Rishi Sunak in December 2022.
During a television debate, Sir Keir repeatedly dodged questions on what he would do with migrants from Iran, Syria and Afghanistan – three of the top five cohorts among small boat arrivals.
