Migration could rise in the short term under Starmer, admits Labour MP

Migration could increase in the “short term” under a Labour government, the party’s chairman has suggested.

The change could happen under Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to plug gaps in the workforce, Anneliese Dodds said.

However, she insisted that the party would not set a target for reducing the annual number of arrivals, saying that to do so was “not sensible”.

She repeatedly refused to say whether Labour would look to cut net migration in the longer term if it wins power at the next general election.

Her remarks came as Rishi Sunak admitted that immigration into Britain is “too high” and set himself a new benchmark of reducing it to 500,000 a year.

Ms Dodds told Sky News: “If we had an immigration system that was working properly, potentially in some areas where there is a short-term need for skills, you could see in the short-term people who are coming in increasing in number.”

Pressed on what number her party would like to see arriving every year, she replied: “Labour believes that setting a net migration target isn’t sensible.”

Sir Keir has previously said that the UK must end its “dependency” on foreign workers by “investing more in training up workers who are already here”.

He has insisted his plans will see immigration “go down” in some sectors, but it won’t “hold businesses back” where they need “talent from abroad”.

Mr Sunak has pledged to reduce net migration, but only to a level which is more than twice that which the Tories promised in their 2019 manifesto.

The Prime Minister said he was “committed” to bringing the number of new arrivals back down to where it stood when he entered Number 10.

At that time, in October, net migration stood at about half a million, but figures out next week are expected to see the figure soar to more than 700,000.

At the last election, Boris Johnson stood on a Tory manifesto which pledged to lower net migration from the level, at the time, of 226,000.

Mr Sunak’s comments came days after he rowed back from Mr Johnson’s manifesto commitment, repeatedly refusing to say he wanted to get it down to this level.

Pressed by Sky News on whether he can bring down net migration to below 500,000 by the next election, the Prime Minister said that he was committed to getting levels down to those he inherited.

“I’m committed to bringing down the levels of migration that I inherited, and I’m relentlessly focused on stopping the boats. That’s one of my five priorities, and we’re doing absolutely everything we can to do that,” he said.

Mr Sunak told BBC News he is “crystal clear” he wants to reduce immigration, but when pressed to what level, he said: “I’m not going to put a precise figure on it, but I do want to bring them down.

“The numbers are too high and we want to bring them down. Now, the numbers last year were impacted by the fact that we welcomed Ukrainian refugees to the UK. Again, that’s something I think we are proud of.”

Cabinet divided on immigration

The Prime Minister defended the Government’s record on immigration, adding: “When someone comes here, we are the ones that decide why they’re here, what they’re doing when they’re here, that they are contributing to the NHS.

“So actually we are in control of all those conditions in a way that we weren’t before.”

There are deep Cabinet splits on the issue of immigration, with Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, using a speech at a prominent conservatism conference to call for more British HGV drivers and fruit pickers to be trained.

However, Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, argued that Britain had to be “pragmatic” by filling shortages in key industries with foreign workers.