Rishi Sunak says net migration of 606,000 is ‘too high’ but system is not ‘out of control’ – UK politics live

Steve Barclay, the health secretary, is to signal a major delay to one of the headline promises in the last Conservative manifesto by suggesting the delivery of 40 new hospitals in England is likely to be pushed back until after 2030, Aubrey Allegretti and Denis Campbell report.

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We will be getting a full Commons statement on this from Barclay later.

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In a statement to MPs in December, Rishi Sunak said that he wanted asylum application claims to be processed “in days or weeks, not months or years” and that he wanted “to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions” by the end of 2023. So when Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, told MPs that cutting the backlog could increase the number of people coming to the UK (see 11.03am), it sounded like he was veering off script.

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Sometimes ministers mess up when they say something that is untrue. But there is another category of gaffe that involves saying something that is true, but that is politically inconvenient, and that is what Jenrick was doing.

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At least three Labour MPs subsequently challenged Jenrick over what he had said. At first he tried to backtrack, but he did confirm that he thought clearing the asylum application claim backlog could make Britain a more attractive destination for asylum seekers.

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Karin Smyth was the first MP to pick up on what Jenrick said. Asking him to clarify what he had said, she pointed out that his argument implied that the government might want to keep the backlog intentionally high, with thousands of asylum seekers stuck in hotels awaiting a decision. She said:

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The Home Office’s inability to progress applications, resulting in many people living in hotels, means that the holding pattern will remain for some time, and that that may be, in fact, a deliberate policy. As the minister said, if they were progressed, there would be more.

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Jenrick claimed that Smyth was misrepresenting what he had said, and that he was only referring to Labour’s plan to speed up the processing of claims, which he said would not cut the number of people crossing the Channel illegally.

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But when Karen Buck asked again if, in the light of what he said, the government did want to reduce the backlog, Jenrick again restated his argument.

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He said that the government was doubling the number of staff dealing with applications, and that it remained confident it would clear the “legacy backlog” by the end of this year. He went on:

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The point that I was making is that, the faster the process, the more pull factor there is to the United Kingdom. That is not a reason to maintain an inefficient process. But what we do need to have is a process where deterrence is suffused through every element, or else we will never break the business model of the people smugglers.

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When Andrew Slaughter challenged him a third time, and asked him whether the government wanted the backlog to go down or go up, Jenrick again said he was just criticising Labour’s policy.

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Faster processing of asylum applications might make the UK a more attractive destination if it meant that people crossing the Channel on small boats did not have to worry about spending a year or more stuck in a hotel unable to work waiting for their claim to be processed.

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The government believes that would not happen if faster processing just meant people being put on a flight to Rwanda more quickly (which is what Jenrick was referring to when he mentioned “deterrence”). But it is far from certain that the courts will ever allow these flights to happen, at least in large numbers.

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Clive Efford (Lab) asks why the government has performed so badly in terms of dealing with the backlog of asylum claims.

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Jenrick says the government is still committed to clearing the backlog this year.

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But he says Labour is wrong to claim that dealing with the backlog will cut the number of people coming to the country. He says:

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It is not correct, however, to suggest that if you can process illegal migrants’ claims faster, that that will reduce the number of people coming into the country. In all likelihood, it will lead to an increase.

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(This is a remarkable claim. Jenrick seems to be saying that the PM’s policy will make the situation worse.)

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Sir Edward Leigh (Con) says some in the Treasury think immigration is good for the economy. But that is bad for productivity. He says it would be better if people were only allowed into to the UK to work if they earn the median UK salary of £33,000.

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Jenrick says he has a lot of sympathy with this argument. In some instances, high levels of migration push down wages, he says.

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He says the government has created a points-based immigration system, with salary thresholds. If further changes are needed, the government will act.

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We are about to get an urgent question on the immigration figures from Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary. She has just released this statement, which will probably give a flavour of what she will say to MPs.

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These extraordinary figures, including doubling the number of work visas since the pandemic, 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.

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Net migration should come down and we expect it to do so. Support we have rightly given to Ukrainians and Hong Kongers 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%, 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.

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Labour will put skills and fairness at the heart of the immigration system – tackling skills shortages and ending the unfair wage discount so employers recruiting from overseas have to pay the going rate. Immigration makes an important contribution to Britain so it needs to be properly managed and controlled so the system is fair.

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Q: People want to know about you a little. How do your daughters deal with reading about you in the papers?

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Sunak says his children are 10 and 12, and don’t really follow the news. That is good, he says. He says he has been in politics for the last few years, so they are used to that. But fundamentally he is dad. They are more interested in things like playing Top Trumps.

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Q: Is it really true you like Jilly Cooper books?

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Yes, says Sunak, Riders, Rivals, Polo – he likes them, he says.

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Q: When did you last cry?

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He says it was something to do with one of their children, a while back.

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Q: What is your biggest regret?

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Sunak takes a while to think.

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He jokes about revealling that he likes Jilly Cooper books.

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But they are good, he says. “You need to have escapism in your life”, he says.

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Q: How does the reality of being PM compare with the expectations?

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Sunak says he did not expect to get the job. But he though he could make a difference.

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The job is hard, he says. He lists the issues he is facing. But he thinks he can make a difference.

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Getting illegal immigration down will be hard. But he thinks he can deal with it, he says.

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Sunak is now being asked about Suella Braverman.

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He says: “I didn’t let her off the hook.”

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Alison Hammond, the presenter, says it would have been good if Suella Braverman had done a group speed awareness course. That would have shown that the law applies to politicians, she says. She says she has done two – and people were taking selfies of her during them.

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Sunak stresses that, in the end, Braverman did not do a private speed awareness course.

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He defends how he handled the issue. He got the facts, and made a decison. He was dealing with it “professionally”, he says.

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Rishi Sunak is being interviewed on ITV’s This Morning.

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He says immigration levels are too high, but he rejects claims it is out of control. This is from the Daily Mirror’s Lizzy Buchan.

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Rishi Sunak tells @thismorning on net migration: "The numbers are too high, it's as simple as that. And I want to bring them down."

But he denies figures are "out of control"

— Lizzy Buchan (@LizzyBuchan) May 25, 2023

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Q: What is your target for bringing immigration down?

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Sunak says he wants to bring immigration down. But he inherited a net immigration figure of around 500,000, he says.

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Q: When will we see the first people being sent to Rwanda?

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Sunak says he thinks people are supportive of the plan. It is not fair if people come here illegally, he claims. That is not fair on taxpayers, and not fair on the people who need help. The government wants to welcome vulnerable people; but it cannot if people are coming to the UK illegally, he says.

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The ONS migration figures are out. They’re here.

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Net migration last year was 606,000, the figures show.

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That is well below expectations – 700,000 or more was the consensus view, with some reports saying it could be close to 1m – but this is still roughly three times as high as the figure the Tories were promising in their 2019 manifesto.

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This is from the ONS news release.

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Total long-term immigration was estimated at around 1.2 million in 2022, and emigration was 557,000, which means migration continues to add to the population with net migration at 606,000; most people arriving to the UK in 2022 were non-EU nationals (925,000), followed by EU (151,000) and British (88,000).

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People coming to the UK from non-EU countries for work, study, and for humanitarian purposes, including unique events such as those arriving from Ukraine and Hong Kong, have contributed towards relatively high levels of immigration over the past 18 months; however, growth has slowed over recent quarters, potentially demonstrating the temporary nature of these impacts.

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The composition of non-EU immigration changed in 2022, with 39% of people arriving for study related reasons, down from 47% in 2021; those arriving on humanitarian routes (including Ukrainian schemes) increased from 9% to 19% over the same period.

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Evidence suggests that students typically stay for shorter periods than other migrants and that the majority leave at the end of their study; the latest data shows that those who arrived for study reasons in 2021 are now starting to leave, driving an increase in total emigration from 454,000 in 2021 to 557,000 in 2022.

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Both a slowing of immigration and rising of emigration means that levels of net migration have levelled off in recent quarters; an estimated 606,000 more people arrived long-term to the UK than departed in YE December 2022, 118,000 higher than a year previously, but similar to levels in YE June 2022.

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The improvement in methods means the previously published immigration estimate for YE June 2022 is revised upwards by 45,000 to 1,109,000, emigration downwards by negative 57,000 to 503,000, and net migration revised by 102,000 to 606,000.

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