Home SecretarySuella Braverman has said her "ultimate aspiration" is to reduce net migration to the UK to the tens of thousands.
The figure echoes a target set by David Cameron’s government, but ultimately never met, to bring numbers below 100,000.
During a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference, Ms Braverman said she wanted to "substantially reduce" the number of migrants coming to the UK.
She said she was not “going to commit to a number" but added that her “ultimate aspiration" was to bring it down to the tens of thousands.
Ms Braverman also suggested she wanted to cut the number of students coming to the UK, a controversial issue.
She said: “In the 90s it was in the tens of thousands under Mrs Thatcher, net migration, and David Cameron famously said tens of thousands, no ifs no buts.
“So that would be my ultimate aspiration but we’ve got to take it slowly and we’ve got to go incrementally.
“I’m not going to commit to a number. I think we have got to definitely substantially reduce the number of students, the number of work visas and in particular the number of dependents on those sorts of visas.”
Her comments came just hours before her first speech to the conference in her new role. She will reportedly use her address to announce that migrants crossing the Channel will face a ban on claiming asylum in Britain.
So far more than 33,500 people have arrived in the UK this year after making the journey.
But the government’s flagship plans to send migrants to Rwanda, on a bid to curb growing numbers, have stalled amid legal challenges.
Campaigners described the expected announcement as "further attacks on genuine refugees" and a "blatant breach" of the UK’s international obligations.
Clare Mosley, founder of refugee charity Care4Calais, said: "This proposal by the new Home Secretary is barbaric, untruthful and unnecessary. The Government’s rhetoric around people crossing the Channel is simply false. There is a mountain of evidence that the vast majority are genuine refugees; this criminalisation of them is blatant victim blaming of incredibly vulnerable people, simply for the purpose of grabbing headlines.
"Those who have escaped from the worst horrors in this world should not be risking their lives once again simply to claim asylum in the UK. The obvious answer is to give them safe passage. This would break the model of people smugglers and save lives.
"If this Government truly wanted to stop small boat crossings it would offer safe passage to those who have a viable claim for asylum."
