Robert Jenrick says immigration measures may not go far enough and crackdown would be good for economy – UK politics live | Politics

Downing Street said this morning that it is not considering introducing an annual cap on immigration numbers “at this point”. Asked about Robert Jenrick’s comment this morning saying there were “merits” in the idea (see 9.41am), the PM’s spokesperson said:

I think we’ve set out the toughest approach to tackling legal migration and bringing the numbers down.

What we said is that we are not prevented from going further should we wish to do and I think that’s what the immigration minister was emphasising this morning.

At the moment our belief is that having full control of our immigration system ensures we’re able to prioritise the skills and talent that are needed to grow the economy, support the health and care sector. We think the approach we set out yesterday achieves that and we aren’t considering a cap at this point.

The UK has suffered a sharp decline in its performance in the latest round of influential international academic tests, wiping out recent progress, as the widespread disruption caused by Covid continued to take its toll on education, the Guardian reports.

Yesterday, when he was being interviewed at the Resolution Foundation conference, Keir Starmer was asked by Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor of the Economist, if he could say in what way his policies were different from the Conservatives’. Starmer was able to provide a half-decent answer, but he did not entirely dispel her suggestion that in many areas the policy overlap is getting more and more pronounced.

Starmer was speaking before James Cleverly announced his immigration crackdown. If Minton Beddoes had heard Labour’s response, she might have put her question even more forcefully. That’s because, while the party has insisted that the announcement is proof that the government has failed on immigration, it has not committed to reversing any of the measures.

Here is the statement that Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, issued last night.

Today’s announcement is an admission of years of Tory failure on both the immigration system and the economy, as net migration has trebled to a record high under the Tories since they promised to reduce it at the last election.

Labour has said repeatedly that net migration should come down and called for action to scrap the unfair 20% wage discount, raise salary thresholds based on economic evidence, bring in new training requirements linked to the immigration system, as well as a proper workforce plan for social care. Immigration is important but the system needs to be controlled and managed. But whilst the Conservatives have finally been forced to abandon the unfair wage discount that they introduced, they are still completely failing to introduce more substantial reforms that link immigration to training and fair pay requirements in the UK, meaning many sectors will continue to see rising numbers of work visas because of skills shortages.

In interviews this morning Cooper was asked in more detail about some of the measures in the package. This is what she told the Today programe.

Ending the 20% wage discount for jobs on the shortage occupation list

Cooper welcomed this announcement, pointing out that it is something that Labour has been asking for.

Increasing the minimum salary threshold for people on a skilled workers visa

Cooper said Labour had been calling for this “because the Migration Advisory Committee has warned about exploitation of low paid workers under the skilled visas system”. But she did not explicitly say that she favoured the threshold going up to £38,700 (from £26,200). The MAC should be advising on the details, she said.

Reviewing the shortage occupation list

Cooper said the fact that the government was keeping the shortage occupation list highlighted the government’s failure to tackle skills shortages. She said:

What that means is, if you’ve got a shortage occupation, not just health and social care workers – that might be also engineers, might also include now bricklayers – employers will still be able to recruit at less than the threshold. And yet the government is still doing nothing to tackle those skills.

Raising the minimum income for family visas

This is one of the most controversial measures in the package because it means that, if a Briton wants to marry a foreigner and bring them back to the UK, they will have to be earning £38,700 a year (up from £18,600 a year). Cooper said she would like this figure reviewed. She said:

We think the Migration Advisory Committee should look at this very swiftly before it is introduced, particularly at the impact this is going to have on British citizens who fall in love across borders.

But she said that she approved in principle of people being required to support family members coming to the UK. And she complained the new rule had “come out of thin air”.

Asked if she would retain this rule if it were in force when a Labour government came into office, Cooper just repeated her call for the MAC to review this. It had not been reviewed for 10 years, she said. She also warned that the plan could lead to an increase in people marrying foreigners before the new limit comes into force.

Care workers being no longer allowed to bring in dependants

Cooper said Labour supported the changes to people on graduate visas being able to bring in dependants. On the proposal for care workers, she said, again, the MAC, should look at this. There has been a big increase in the number of care visas being issued, she said. She said Labour wanted a fair pay agreement to make care jobs more appealling to British workers.

Deportation flights to Rwanda will take place before the next election, Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said this morning. Ben Quinn has the story.

Rishi Sunak will be on the “wrong side of history” in his handling of the infected blood scandal, the head of a charity has warned, after his government suffered its first parliamentary defeat over when to compensate victims, Jamie Grierson reports.

In his interviews this morning Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, claimed the UK would benefit from the immigration crackdown announced yesterday.

We believe that this will be good for the economy because it will encourage employers in particular, to invest in their own workforce, raising skills levels, investing in technology and efforts to improve their productivity. It will help more people off welfare and help those who are economically inactive.

He also claimed the economic impact of the proposals had assessed, and discussed with the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility. “So we’ve taken this in a very considered way,” he said.

We want to help people on welfare and into work. We want to reduce pressure on housing and public services, and also to build a more socially cohesive and united country, which is difficult, I would argue impossible, when such large numbers of people are coming into the country.

Last night Suella Braverman, the former home secretary and the most prominent voice on the Tory right for tighter immigration controls, gave a qualified welcome to the immigration crackdown. It was “a step in the right direction”, she said in a thread on X. But she said it was too late to have an impact on numbers before the general election, and she said further measures were needed.

Among other things, she called for an annual cap on immigration numbers.

As well as these proposals, we should go further: shortening the graduate route – not just reviewing it again; & we need an annual cap, set by Parliament, across all visa routes, so we don’t get into this terrible situation again & government can be properly held to account.

This morning Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, was asked if he favoured an annual cap. He told Times Radio:

There are merits to ideas like that. But what matters now is action. The public wants to see us actually deliver reducing levels of net migration, as I’ve been very clear, that people are sick of talk on this topic.

In this answer Jenrick sounded more positive about the cap proposal than his boss James Cleverly, the home secretary, did when he was asked about it in the Commons yesterday.

Good morning. Most government announcements have only a limited impact on life as its lived in the UK – in other words, you have to look hard to notice – but yesterday’s plan to slash immigration numbers was probably an exception. It is intended to close down very high immigration as a component of the economy. It won’t stop all immigration by any means, but if it achieves what ministers expect, it will deliver a noticeable jolt to how the UK functions.

The announcement has had a good reception in the parts of the press that matter most to No 10 (not the Guardian), but even if it reduces net migration by 300,000, as the Home Office expects, that will not meet the Conservative party’s manifesto pledge of getting it below the level it was in 2019 (around 230,00). Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, has been giving interviews this morning and he said the government remained committed to that target. Speaking to Times Radio, he was evasive about whether it would be possible to achieve this before the next election, but he said if further measures were needed, beyond what was announced yesterday, the government would act. He said:

If we need to take more action then we will because we’re determined to meet the manifesto commitment and to ensure net migration is reduced. We all stood on that manifesto in the 2019 election and we’re determined to meet it as quickly as possible.

If we need to go further, and we may well do, then we should and we will, because I’m determined that we meet that manifesto commitment.

I will post more from his interviews shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.

Morning: James Cleverly, the home secretary, is due to sign a treaty with Rwanda in Kigali.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.30am: Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Around 3.20pm: David Cameron takes questions for the first time in his new role as foreign secretary.

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