Angry Tory right-wingers on Thursday demanded action from Rishi Sunak after new figures showed net migration had hit a record level of 745,000.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said revised statistics put net migration to Britain higher than previously thought in the year to December 2022. However, the figure for the year to June 2023 was estimated to be lower at 672,000.
“The word ‘existential’ has been used a lot in recent days but this really is ‘do or die’ for our party,” the New Conservative bloc of MPs said in a statement.
The group, led by Miriam Cates, Danny Kruger and Sir John Hayes, recapped the party’s 2019 manifesto pledge to cut annual net migration to below 250,000.
It warned: “We don’t believe that such promises can be ignored.
“The Government must propose, today, a comprehensive package of measures to meet the manifesto promise by the time of the next election. We will assess any such package and report publicly on whether it will meet the promise made to the electorate.
“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.”
Mr Sunak vowed in May to bring net migration below the level he inherited when he became PM in October last year, when the latest data showed it topping 500,000. But he pointedly refused to recommit to Boris Johnson’s pledge of 2019.
The PM’s spokesman told reporters on Thursday that “migration remains far too high” while also paying credit to those “who come and contribute to UK society”.
Home Secretary James Cleverly, who replaced right-wing favourite Suella Braverman in a recent reshuffle, said: “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.”
The Government’s plan to send boatloads of migrants to Rwanda has been blocked for now by the Supreme Court, but Mr Cleverly said the numbers crossing the Channel were already down by more than one-third this year.
He added: “Behind the overall migration figures are a number of important and positive changes. Today’s statistics, which show the biggest drivers of immigration to the UK are students and healthcare workers, are testament to both our world-leading university sector and our ability to use our immigration system to prioritise the skills we need.”
NHS Providers, which represents healthcare trusts, stressed that UK hospitals and social care rely on staff from overseas to keep going.
“But this isn’t sustainable," its chief executive Sir Julian Hartley said.
“With more than 125,000 vacancies across the NHS in England and around 150,000 in social care, we can’t keep relying on international recruitment to plug these huge gaps," he said.
“We need to turbo-boost the number of domestically trained health and social care staff alongside welcoming colleagues from abroad to join the service."
But others from the Conservative Right were unimpressed with the latest numbers, which also showed 250,000 family dependants coming in the year to June 2023 alongside those on work or study visas.
Jonathan Gullis MP told Times Radio that Mr Sunak and Mr Cleverly must take “drastic action now” to bring down net migration because the "British public simply won't stomach it".
Retweeting a message by Mr Gullis, Simon Clarke MP said: “Jonathan is right.”
