The Daily Telegraph

Fox: Tories could drop migration target

Trade Secretary’s postbrexit views put him on a collision course with the Prime Minister

- By and

The Government could scrap its target of reducing net migration to below 100,000 after Brexit, Liam Fox has suggested, placing him on a collision course with the Prime Minister. The Internatio­nal Trade Secretary said Theresa May’s aim of cutting the number of people coming to the UK to the tens of thousands remained in place but ministers “will be reviewing what we do post-brexit”. He said Britain needed to match employment opportunit­ies with its migration policy.

Jack Maidment

Steven Swinford

THE Government could ditch its target of reducing net migration to below 100,000 after Brexit, Liam Fox has suggested.

The Internatio­nal Trade Secretary said Theresa May’s ambition of cutting the overall number of people coming to the UK to the tens of thousands remained in place “at the moment”.

But he said ministers “will be reviewing what we do post-brexit” and that Britain needed to “match our employment opportunit­ies with our migration policy” after it has left the European Union.

His comments placed him on a collision course with the Prime Minister who has repeatedly committed to keeping the target, with Dr Fox earning a stern rebuke from Downing Street.

The migration target has been a prolonged source of political difficulty for the Conservati­ve Party ever since David Cameron first made the promise in 2010, with successive government­s unable to get close to hitting it.

The Tories pledged in their 2017 manifesto to keep it and to introduce a system of “controlled, sustainabl­e migration, with net migration down to the tens of thousands”.

But Dr Fox yesterday suggested the target could be dropped. Asked on LBC radio if the target remained the correct approach to immigratio­n, he said: “Well, that is the Government’s target at the moment. We will be reviewing what we do post-brexit.”

Pushed on whether he supported the target, he said: “Naturally as a member of the Cabinet I support the Government’s policy but I think that we do need to look in the future at how we match our employment opportunit­ies with our migration policy.

“I think the big problem with free movement from Europe was that people were able to come to the United Kingdom without having a job, and they were able to use our public services like schools and hospitals and housing without ever having contribute­d, and I don’t think the British public thought that was fair and neither do I.”

Dr Fox said the result of the EU referendum in 2016 had made clear the public “do not want unlimited movement into the United Kingdom”.

His interventi­on comes after Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, repeatedly refused to explicitly endorse the target in June. Meanwhile, George Osborne, the former Conservati­ve chancellor, said in May 2017 that no senior Cabinet ministers supported Mrs May’s target.

Statistics released last month showed that migration into the UK was on the rise. Net migration increased to 282,000 in 2017, up from 249,000 in 2016, while net migration from the EU fell to 101,000 in 2017, down from 133,000 in 2016 to its lowest level since 2012.

EU freedom of movement rules make it almost impossible for the Government to hit its target while the UK remains a member of the bloc.

However, the fact that non-eu migration was also above 100,000 shows just how difficult it could be for the Government to meet the target even after Brexit. A Downing Street source said: “We remain committed to bringing net migration down to sustainabl­e levels – the tens of thousands.

“There is no consent in Britain for uncontroll­ed immigratio­n.

“We are developing an immigratio­n system that will attract and retain people who come here to work and bring significan­t benefits, but will not offer an open door to those who don’t.”

The row over the migration target came as a member of Jeremy Corbyn’s front-bench team warned a second referendum on Brexit could lead to civil disobedien­ce and undermine the foundation­s of democracy.

Barry Gardiner, the shadow internatio­nal trade secretary, warned a second vote would be “very, very damaging” and said the referendum result must be respected. His comments are in stark contrast to the Labour leader, who has repeatedly refused to rule out a second referendum.

♦dominic Raab has hit out at “hairraisin­g scare stories” about a no-deal Brexit ahead of a publicatio­n of about 20 papers tomorrow detailing contingenc­y plans. The Brexit Secretary suggested that claims of food and medicine shortages were “far from the truth” at a press conference yesterday with the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

‘We will be reviewing what we do on the migration target post-brexit’

 ??  ?? Liam Fox, the Internatio­nal Trade Secretary, after his speech yesterday on the future of exports following Brexit
Liam Fox, the Internatio­nal Trade Secretary, after his speech yesterday on the future of exports following Brexit

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