A Tory minister has claimed that migration targets aren't "paricularly helpful" - less than a fortnight after figures showed the party had spectacularly missed its manifesto pledge.
Robert Jenrick squirmed as he was challenged on Conservative promises, days after figures showed 606,000 more people came to the UK than left last year.
Immigration Minister Mr Jenrick was reminded of former Tory PM David Cameron's pledge to reduce the number to below 100,000.
He said: "I don't think that targets like that are particularly helpful because migration is an extremely challenging space where behaviours are constantly changing."
Years of Conservative failure have seen tens of thousands of asylum seekers stuck in limbo waiting for decisions on their applications.
Home Office figures released last month revealed that 172,758 people were waiting for an initial asylum decision at the end of March 2023.
Mr Jenrick told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: "Net migration is far too high today."
Mr Jenrick defended the Home Office after a group of asylum seekers said they'd been ordered to sleep "four people per room".
He claimed that if people are "genuinely destitute" they would accept the requirement.
He said: "As I understand what happened here was that these migrants, who had themselves said that they were destitute, they had nowhere to stay, we had offered them a safe bed with board and lodgings in a good-quality hotel in central London.
"Yes, some of them had to share with other people. These are single adult males: I don't think that's unreasonable.
"We want to reduce the cost to the taxpayer. Some people said that wasn't good enough and they wanted their own ensuite bedrooms, and the Home Office took the perfectly reasonable view that we've got to look after the taxpayer here.
"And if you're genuinely destitute, of course you'd accept that, and common sense prevailed and, I think, almost all of the migrants in question accepted the accommodation."
The Tories have come under fire after net migration - the difference between the number of people moving to the UK and those leaving - rocketed from 488,000 in 2021 and up from 504,000 in the 12 months to last June.
This was despite Rishi Sunak's pledge to bring it down.
A total of 1.2 million people arrived last year compared with 557,000 quitting the country.
Most people arriving were non-EU nationals - some 925,000 - followed by EU citizens at 151,000.
Some 114,000 people arrived from war-torn Ukraine and 52,000 Hongkongers on British nationals overseas visas, following China’s brutal crackdown.
The rest - 88,000 - were British people coming back.
The Tories used the 2010, 2015 and 2017 election manifestos to pledge to cut net migration to below 100,000.
The party abandoned the promise for the 2019 ballot, but committed to making sure "overall numbers come down".
Home Secretary Suella Braverman suggested reviving a Conservative pledge to reduce the number to the "tens of thousands" in September 2022 - but Mr Sunak has conspicuously not repeated this promise.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the figures show the Conservatives have "no plan and no grip on immigration".
"Ministers have completely failed to tackle skills shortages, especially in health and social care, or to get people back into work after Covid," she said.
“Net migration should come down and we expect it to do so. Support we have rightly given to Ukrainians and HongKongers has unusually affected the figures this year.
"But that can’t disguise the fact that the Conservatives’ chaotic approach means that work visas are up 119 per cent, net migration is more than twice the level ministers were aiming for, and the asylum backlog is at a record high despite Rishi Sunak promising to clear it this year."
Labour said it would scrap rules meaning foreign workers can be paid less than Britons.
Companies where experts say there is a shortage of workers can pay foreigners 20% less than the going rate - meaning bosses have an incentive to recruit from overseas.
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