MPs who came up with a blueprint for reducing the number of migrants arriving lawfully into the UK have insisted they are loyal to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The New Conservatives group, made up of Tory MPs from the 2017 and 2019 intake, said British employers had become “addicted” to cheap foreign labour as they argued it was time to “turn off the taps” of low-skilled workers arriving from abroad.
Ipswich MP Tom Hunt said levels of migration were “too high” and “unsustainable”.
The backbencher is the author of a report for the New Conservatives which recommends that ministers close temporary visa schemes for care workers and cap the number of refugees resettling in the UK at 20,000.
But despite acknowledging that he thought the UK Government could go “further” to tackle legal net migration — which stood at 606,000 last year, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics — Mr Hunt denied that the group was looking to “undermine” Mr Sunak.
During a central London press briefing on Monday, MPs from the group regularly pointed back to the Tory 2019 manifesto pledge to reduce net migration, arguing that their plan was about helping ministers achieve that aim ahead of next year’s likely general election.
Mr Hunt told reporters in Westminster: “I know there is a lot being written about ‘Tory rebels’ et cetera.
I think particularly on illegal migration (Rishi Sunak) has been incredibly brave with the policies he has adopted, particularly in relation to the Illegal Migration Bill and his continued support for the Rwanda policy— Conservative MP Tom Hunt
“I’ll just make it absolutely clear, that is not how we see it. I supported Rishi Sunak to become Prime Minister, I do not regret the decision I made.
“I think particularly on illegal migration he has been incredibly brave with the policies he has adopted, particularly in relation to the Illegal Migration Bill and his continued support for the Rwanda policy.”
Mr Hunt said it was his and his colleagues’ experience of speaking to voters that had convinced them to speak out on net migration levels.
After praising the impact migration had had on his Suffolk constituency, the backbencher said: “I think recently though, the level and the scale of migration has been too high, it has been unsustainable.
It is disparaging to label people as xenophobes for having concerns about having net migration at half-a-million a year— Conservative MP Tom Hunt
“I think it is wrong to brand people who have concerns about net migration being at the level it is right now as somehow hostile to immigration, when it is absolutely not the case.
“It is disparaging to label people as xenophobes for having concerns about having net migration at half-a-million a year.”
Mr Hunt said net migration would likely fall next year as they would not include Ukrainian refugee numbers and those resettled from Hong Kong, but added: “But naturally, we believe that there is slightly further to go.”
Lee Anderson, vice chairman of the Conservative Party, had initially been due to speak at Monday’s press conference but Danny Kruger, MP for Devizes, said he was too ill attend.
His name did not appear on a list of 20 Tory MPs officially backing Mr Hunt’s report, The New Conservatives’ Plan To Cut Migration, but Mr Kruger insisted Mr Anderson remained “very supportive”.
Addressing Mr Anderson’s absence, Mr Kruger said: “He’s a vice chairman of the party so he doesn’t officially endorse policy proposals to the party, understandably.
“But he is very much part of our group, very supportive of what we are doing and said so publicly, so he is very much on board with what we are doing.”
Miriam Cates, the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said only when the supply of cheap labour was scaled back would Britons be able to gain better skills.
We are never going to realise the value of our own workers and upskill our own workers if we don't turn off the taps to mass legal migration— Conservative MP Miriam Cates
She said that without reforms “we’re not going to stop the addiction to cheap labour”.
“We’ve got stagnant wages, stagnant productivity, we’ve got really difficult labour market conditions because of years and years of not investing in our own people,” she said.
“We are never going to realise the value of our own workers and upskill our own workers if we don’t turn off the taps to mass legal migration.”
Ms Cates questioned the decision to keep care workers on the occupation shortage list, a designation that allows the sector to bring lower-skilled workers into the country to fill positions, suggesting it was a Covid policy that had not delivered.
She said the country had “record levels of migration, and we’ve still not solved the care crisis”, with Ms Cates instead arguing that the solution was to “train up our own people to do the work” and “improve the pay conditions so that people want to do it”.
Mr Kruger said the group, along with his party, were rallying against the “establishment” when it came to migration reforms.
“There is an establishment in this country, which the Conservative leadership and our colleagues here are not part of, and that is the establishment that we’re fighting against, that resists these proposals, particularly on immigration,” he said.
Downing Street said the Government had no plan to remove care workers from the shortage occupation list and downplayed the prospect of blocking foreign university students from staying in the UK after graduation – another recommendation made by the New Conservatives group.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman refused to say whether Mr Sunak was frustrated by Mr Anderson’s support for tougher migration rules but acknowledged there were “different views on each side”.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman faced a question from Tory MP James Daly in the Commons about raising the main skilled work visa salary threshold to £38,000 per annum, a recommendation made in Mr Hunt’s report.
Mrs Braverman told him she recognised that “net migration is too high” and that overall numbers needed to be reduced.
She earlier told MPs: “We expect net migration to return to sustainable levels over time and immigration policy is under constant review.”
