ishi Sunak has said legal migration to the UK is “too high” and is “considering a range of options” to bring down the number of arrivals.
The prime minister told the BBC on Friday that plans of action were being considered to help him to deliver on a central 2019 Conservative general election pledge.
Speaking to Chris Mason at the G7 summit in Japan, Mr Sunak did not put a number on the acceptable figure.
“What I would say is we’re considering a range of options to help tackle numbers of legal migration and to bring those numbers down — and we’ll talk more about that in the future,” the prime minister said.
“What I can tell you is the numbers are high and we do want to bring them down.”
But what is the issue and why is Mr Sunak eager to take action over it?
How many people migrate to the UK each year?
Rishi Sunak walks around Hiroshima where the G7 conference is being held
/ APMigration figures of people coming into the UK are released every June and the figure Mr Sunak was commenting on is almost a year old.
Office of National Statistics [ONS] data shows 500,000 more people came to the UK than left the country last year.
The ONS said: “The period leading up to June 2022 was unique, with simultaneous factors coinciding to affect long-term immigration; this included the continued recovery in travel following the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, a number of migration events including a new immigration system following the transition from the EU, and the ongoing support for Ukrainian nationals and others requiring protection.”
Mr Sunak still described the figure that came in the year up to June 2022 as being too high and early estimates are that the figure could top one million this time around.
That number would be an almost fourfold increase on the 226,000 that came in 2019 — the year the Tories pledged to reduce the number in their election manifesto.
Conflict in Ukraine and Afghanistan as well as unrest in Hong Kong has led to the UK accepting more applications than usual in the past 24 months.
Mr Sunak said helping out migrants fleeing war was something the country should be “proud of”.
Pushed on what would be an acceptable level of migration, the prime minister said “it depends on how the economy’s doing at any particular time and the circumstances we’re facing”.
