Theresa May will push ahead with a controversial policy of reducing net migration to the UK to the tens of thousands if the Tories are re-elected next month, say reports.
At the moment, net migration to the UK - the overall increase in population after accounting for those emigrating - is estimated at around 273,000 a year.
Tory manifestos since 2010 have pledged to reduce this figure to the "tens of thousands", but Home Secretary Amber Rudd has so far refused to confirm or deny if it will appear in this year's policy document.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 yesterday, she said it was "too early to say" if the Prime Minister intended to push forward with a migration cap.
However, the BBC claims it has it on good authority that the pledge will "definitely" make the cut when the manifesto appears this week.
Promises to cut migration have always been popular with a wide swathe of the electorate, but the economic practicalities have prevented successive governments from making headway.
Dr Carlos Vargas-Silva, acting director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, told the BBC it would be a particular challenge to cut the number of non-EU migrants, the majority of whom are "highly-skilled workers, students and relatives of those already lawfully in the UK".
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) also expressed concern about setting an arbitrary target and called for immigration policies to be set according to economic need rather than political expediency.
Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director-general, said the economy relied on a flexible labour market currently provided by freedom of movement with the EU and that the British workforce alone could not meet this demand.
"We are a services based-economy and people are our currency," she told the Daily Telegraph.
Any future immigration model must be "need-based", she added, and focussed on giving the economy "the skills and people that we need for our business".
Ukip have attempted to use the government's reluctance to publicly commit to the migration cap to appeal to disappointed Conservative voters.
Party leader Paul Nuttall vowed they would institute a hardline "one in, out one" policy for entry to the UK, with the aim of reducing net migration to zero over a five-year period.
"Balanced migration" would mean "roughly 300,000 talented people can come to Britain in a typical year", he said, adding: "That is a rational approach to immigration rather than the uncontrolled mass immigration we have seen under Labour and the Tories."
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Chicago: Scenes from a city under siegeFeature Chicago is descending into chaos as masked federal agents target people in public spaces and threaten anyone who tries to document the arrests
-
How are ICE’s recruitment woes complicating Trump’s immigration agenda?TODAY’S BIG QUESTION Lowered training standards and ‘athletically allergic’ hopefuls are hindering the White House plan to turn the Department of Homeland Security into a federal police force
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Whistles emerge as Chicago’s tool to fight ICEIN THE SPOTLIGHT As federal agents continue raiding the city, communities have turned to noisemakers to create a warning system
-
Are inflatable costumes and naked bike rides helping or hurting ICE protests?Talking Points Trump administration efforts to portray Portland and Chicago as dystopian war zones have been met with dancing frogs, bare butts and a growing movement to mock MAGA doomsaying
-
Taking the low road: why the SNP is still standing strongTalking Point Party is on track for a fifth consecutive victory in May’s Holyrood election, despite controversies and plummeting support
-
Trump’s deportations are changing how we think about foodIN THE SPOTLIGHT The Department of Labor’s admission that immigration raids have affected America’s food supplies reopens a longstanding debate
