Michael Gove said on Tuesday that high levels of migration into Britain were putting a strain on housing and public services and that a “limit” had to be imposed on the numbers.
The government’s target of building 300,000 homes a year — which it is not meeting — was based on an assumption of net migration of 170,000 a year, but the actual figure is running at least three times higher than that.
“Britain has always been a country that has benefited from people of talent arriving here and people fleeing persecution,” the levelling up secretary told a National Conservatism UK conference in London. “But the numbers recently have been at a level where there is an inevitable pressure on housing and on public services.”
The issue of high net migration has caused cabinet tensions with Suella Braverman, home secretary, telling the same conference this week that overall numbers have to come down.
The latest official data shows that net migration exceeded 500,000 in the year to June 2022. But some analysts have estimated new figures out next week for the 2022 calendar year could top 700,000, which would more than double the pre-Brexit record.
At the same time, the government continues to fall short of its own housing targets by a large margin with 216,490 new homes built in 2020-21.
Gove said the UK had to create safe routes for people fleeing persecution and take in foreign workers with certain skills to fill key jobs but said that “beyond that there is a limit”.
Braverman is expected to announce shortly a plan to stop postgraduate students on one-year masters courses from bringing family members with them to Britain. Other senior cabinet ministers — chancellor Jeremy Hunt, and Gillian Keegan, education secretary — oppose the move, given the importance of international students to the economy.
Gove said he completely “disagreed” with those who believed that after 13 years in power “the time has come to dispense with the Conservatives”. The party has always adapted “to changed circumstances,” he added.
Many Tory MPs believe that if the government can show progress on issue such as lowering migration, it would boost the party’s standing in the polls. The latest data from Savanta gave Labour a 17 point lead on the Tories.
Downing Street on Tuesday stressed that the government “remains committed to reducing net migration”, adding that prime minister Rishi Sunak would raise the “challenge” of illegal migration with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen during his attendance in Iceland at the summit of the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human rights body.
Speaking at the conference on Tuesday Sir John Hayes, an ally of the home secretary, warned that a “widening chasm” was emerging “between the people of Britain and the elite who profess to serve them”.
He called for the creation of an immigration system “driven not by the demands of amoral big business but in tune with the will of the people”.
Another senior Tory denied suggestions that the focus on migration by Braverman and other MPs from the right wing of the party was an attempt to undermine Sunak after the disastrous local election results.
“There is no mood for another leader,” he said. “But the reality is with such large migration numbers, it does have an impact on housing and education — we promised to act on migration in the manifesto and now we need to act on it.”
Meanwhile, Sunak has come under renewed pressure over his government’s tax policy after analysis from the think-tank Institute for Fiscal Studies published on Tuesday warned that by 2027-28, one in seven adults will be paying 40 per cent tax.
“It is critical we go into the next election showing that we have cut taxes in a meaningful way for working people, the teachers, the doctors etc,” one former minister said.
