Will growing pressure cause Tories to cap net migration?

With a general election approaching and Rishi Sunak’s position looking increasingly perilous, pressure is growing on the prime minister to announce an overhaul of Britain’s immigration laws.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick this weekend called for net migration to be capped at less than 100,000 each year.

The Tory right-winger used a Sunday Telegraph op-ed to argue the figure should be limited to the tens of thousands, months after official figures showed it had reached a record 745,000 in 2022.

And the right-wing New Conservatives group of around 25 Tory MPs has piled pressure on the PM to drastically cut net migration before the election.

What has the prime minister done on net migration?

Net migration is the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving the country. Weeks after bombshell figures showed 2022’s figure had soared to a record 745,000, Mr Sunak and home secretary James Cleverly announced a slew of measures to bring the numbers down.

Mr Sunak says he will “do what is necessary” to cut immigration, banning overseas care workers from bringing family dependents and drastically hiking the salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700. The PM scrapped the Shortage Occupation List (SOL), replacing it with an immigration salary list to identify those eligible for skilled worker visas.

The PM said the measures would slash the number of people arriving in Britain by 300,000 a year.

Where would that leave the figure?