Dame Priti Patel today said the Conservative government does not need to apologise for allowing millions of immigrants to move to the UK in its final years in power.
The former home secretary, one of six Conservative MPs running to succeed Rishi Sunak as party leader, said it was “lazy” to suggest net immigration was too high.
The figures show net migration – the difference between the number of people arriving in the UK and the number of people leaving it – was 685,000 last year and 764,000 in 2022.
The number of refugees arriving in the UK has become a politicised issue in parts of the country, and was also politicised in the riots that followed the murder of three girls in Southport, Merseyside, earlier this month.
Priti Patel said context matters.
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Asked on the Chopper politics podcast if she thought there were too many legal immigrants, Patel said it was “too lazy” to criticise high immigration numbers without providing context.
She said: “Our borders were effectively closed during the pandemic. Travel was impossible. What about the international students who came in after the pandemic? Are we saying they should not have come in?”
Asked if she wanted to apologise for the surge in migration under the Conservative government, Ms Patel said it was important to look at the context of the pandemic which led to the closure of borders immediately after the 2019 election victory.
She said: “What the Government has chosen to do, and I think it’s the right choice, is to ensure that we have given the NHS the support it needs through the Health and Social Care visa.”
“Are we going to say that was a mistake? I mean, knock on the door and ask our listeners and viewers.
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Priti Patel said it was “too lazy” to criticise the high numbers arriving without giving any context.
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“Would they say we shouldn’t have had more doctors and nurses? I don’t think so.”
The numbers swell with arrivals from war-torn Ukraine and British nationals moving to Britain from Hong Kong.
Ms Patel defended the points system which she helped introduce as home secretary.
Anyone coming into the UK needs a sponsor to get a visa, “and a lot of these people are also high taxpayers, so their situation matters,” he said.
She explained: “If we don’t want so many people coming to work in our country, we need to have a much broader discussion about labour market strategies.”
She added: “Even when I was in government, all my colleagues have been lobbying for more seasonal workers and truck drivers.
“In fact, the DWP has done a really good job of making sure that apprenticeships are in place, but again, this is about our economic needs and how do we actually develop the talent that will be automatically employed in the country.”
Ms Patel denied wanting to keep net immigration to below 100,000 a year, as pledged by her rival Mel Stride, and argued Brexit had given ministers a “measure of control”.
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