The political mood music emanating from the Home Office to accompany this quarter’s immigration figures marks a sharp contrast from James Cleverly’s predecessor.
Commenting on the students in the numbers, he said:
The biggest drivers of immigration to the UK are students and health care workers – [they] are testament to both our world-leading university sector and our ability to use our immigration system to prioritise the skills we need.
The focus has moved away from temporary legal migration to illegal migration in a way that will cheer those who call for students to be taken out of net migration figures altogether:
“But we do need to reduce our overall numbers by eliminating the abuse and exploitation of our visa system by both companies and individuals.
But with the Government languishing in the polls, Farage about to emerge from the Australian jungle, the anti-immigration right on the rise across Europe and a set of stats that have revised up 2022’s annual net migration figures by a whopping 139k to 745,000, the pressure will remain on to “do something” about immigration.
