Major expansion of foreign visas abandoned as Rishi Sunak pledges to ‘get migration down’

Overall immigration numbers should fall, Rishi Sunak has said, as he abandoned Liz Truss’s plans for a major expansion of foreign visas to boost economic growth.

The Prime Minister committed to the Tory 2019 election manifesto promise to seek a reduction when he talked to reporters on the plane to the G20 summit in Bali.

“I do want to get migration down over time,” said Mr Sunak, in what are his most detailed comments on wider migration policy since he entered Number 10 last month.

But Mr Sunak repeatedly insisted that bringing down illegal migration - specifically, the surge of small boats crossing the English Channel - would be his immediate focus.

The Prime Minister also played down one of his Tory summer leadership pitches to cap the annual number of refugees taken in by the UK, indicating it was not a priority.

Ms Truss, in the final days of her premiership, was preparing to announce what was to be dubbed “growth visas”, which aimed to deliver a marked increase in immigration.

The plan triggered a heated stand-off between Ms Truss and Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, who eventually quit after leaking an email about migration policy before being reappointed by Mr Sunak.

The Telegraph reported at the time that the Truss government was planning to confirm the manifesto pledge to get immigration falling overall was going to be abandoned.

Mr Sunak said that the manifesto pledge would remain, after being pushed on the specifics for a second time in a briefing with reporters.

Mr Sunak at first told reporters: “When it comes to migration more generally I do think that the absolute priority that the British people have right now, as do I, is to grip illegal migration.

“I made a commitment that I would grip it in the summer. And I can tell you all that I've spent more time working on that than anything else, other than obviously the Autumn Statement, over the past couple of weeks.

“Look, I've been honest that there's not a single thing to do to fix it and we can't fix it overnight.

“But there's a range of things I'm working on, including the French deal, where I'm confident we can bring the numbers down over time and that's what I'm gonna deliver.”

Pushed a second time, Mr Sunak said: “I do want to get migration down over time. But I think the most pressing priority we have and the British people have is getting a grip of illegal migration and small boats. And that's what I'm spending most of my time on.”

Asked if he would bring in a yearly cap on refugees, as proposed during his leadership campaign, Mr Sunak said: “I think the first thing to do is to make sure that we can stop numbers of people coming here illegally.

“Having a conversation like that can only happen after we've taken all the necessary steps to have proper control of our borders, so that there aren’t large numbers of people coming here illegally. And that is the priority, that's the focus.”