Th eresa May has indicated that the Conservatives will again promise to cut net migration to the “tens of thousands” in their election manifesto. Speaking in Harrow, she said migration levels were having an impact on public services and low-paid workers.
Asked if this meant the target – missed repeatedly since 2010 – could be hit, she said it was important to continue to aim for “sustainable” levels. Other parties said the target was “artifi cial” and should be dropped. On Sunday, Home Secretary Amber Rudd refused to say whether the pledge – which was in the 2010 and 2015 Tory manifestos – would be repeated but the BBC understands it will defi nitely be in the 2017 manifesto, due to be published next week.
Theresa May: We still want to cut net migration to ‘tens of thousands’ Net migration is the diff erence between the numbers of people moving to the UK for more than a year, and the numbers of people leaving the UK to live elsewhere for a year or more. Th e most recent fi gure was 273,000 and the last year that it was below 100,000 was 1997. Questions had been raised about whether the target would be retained after Culture Secretary Karen Bradley recently said that immigration was “not about putting numbers on it” but about ensuring Britain had the skilled workers it needed.
