General Election latest: Tories signal ditching pledge to cap migrants at 100,000 a year

Priti Patel set to focus on attracting 'best and brightest' in place of the low-skilled
Home Secretary Priti Patel
Getty Images
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Two ministers paved the way today for the Conservatives to formally dump their controversial manifesto pledge to cut immigration to 100,000 a year.

Home Secretary Priti Patel stopped short of saying that the Tories, if re-elected, would commit to reducing net migration to tens of thousands, as promised in three elections since 2010.

Home Office minister Victoria Atkins also declined four times to say whether immigration would be higher or lower in the future and gave little detail over the Government’s planned points-based system.

Business and universities leaders immediately backed ditching the 100,000 target which Theresa May stuck with as home secretary and prime minister. It is set to be replaced with a focus on reducing low-skilled immigration while continuing to encourage highly skilled workers to come to Britain.

Home Secretary Priti Patel
PA

However, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said it seemed that the Tories had now “given up” on cutting immigration, a centrepiece issue of the 2016 Leave campaign which persuaded many people to back quitting the EU.

Ms Patel this morning highlighted a fast-track system for healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses, to address the NHS staffing crisis.

But asked whether there could be more people from overseas working in the UK now than under Tory plans, she told the BBC: “We have been very clear that we want a balanced and fair approach to immigration.

“That means we want a system where we have the best and the brightest, with the skills that our country needs.”

General Election 2019 - In pictures

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Pressed again on the issue, she added: “Under a points-based system we would have controlled immigration.”

Ms Atkins said: “We want to make sure that the world’s medics know that we are a welcoming place for them to come and work.”

But on whether the party wanted immigration to be higher or lower, she said: “We want to have immigration that suits the needs of the country.”

Bosses supported ditching the 100,000 target but raised concerns over a floated £30,000 minimum salary threshold for workers to come to the UK, which would reportedly affect 60,000 NHS workers, as well a tens of thousands of employees in other industries.

Mark Hilton, director of employment and skills at London First, said: “While it is a positive move to abandon the arbitrary 100,000 net migration target, businesses will be concerned by the proposals to introduce a points-based system to EEA workers, which could add layers of bureaucracy.

“This, coupled with a salary threshold of £30,000, would lead to shortages in vital industries such as social care, construction, and hospitality.”

Ben Moore, immigration policy analyst at the Russell Group which represents 24 leading UK universities, said: “Alongside the long overdue move away from arbitrary net migration targets, we hope to see the £30,000 minimum salary threshold for skilled workers dropped so we can continue to recruit the skilled technicians, scientific staff and teaching professionals the country needs.”

But Mr Farage said: “Yet more meaningless manifesto pledges from the Conservatives on immigration. Will they cut numbers or raise them? It seems they have given up on the former.”

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn was dealt a series of blows today as Labour candidates went off message.

Veteran MP Dame Margaret Hodge refused to say if she wanted him or Boris Johnson to be Prime Minister. The Barking MP, who has clashed with Mr Corbyn over anti-Semitism, would only say when asked to endorse her leader: “I want a Labour government.”

A Scottish Labour candidate, Kate Ramsden, stepped down after it emerged she compared Israel to a child abuser. Labour lost another candidate, Frances Hoole in Edinburgh South West, who quit after posting “Terf”, a derogatory word meaning trans-exclusionary radical feminist. Another, Ian Byrne, who shared a platform with Mr Corbyn last night, faced calls to go for using the C-word about a female peer.

In another setback, former Labour MP and Brexit-backer Gisela Stuart, urged voters to back Boris Johnson and ensure his Brexit deal goes through. “If people want to leave, that is what they have to vote for,” she told Express.co.uk.

Yesterday former Labour MPs John Woodcock and Ian Austin urged the public to back Mr Johnson, saying Mr Corbyn was unfit to be PM.

Mr Johnson today claimed he has given up drinking, telling nurses in Nottinghamshire: “I’ve had to give it up until we get Brexit done.”

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