Rishi Sunak’s change to the government’s immigration targets sparked outrage among restive backbench Conservatives, with some demanding a meeting with Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
It comes after the prime minister set a new target to bring migration below the level he “inherited”, which was around 500,000 net arrivals a year when he took office.
Mr Sunack redefined his immigration target while in Japan for the G7 meeting, after earlier in the week abandoning a Tory pledge in the 2019 manifesto to reduce it below the then level of around 220,000.
Adam Holloway, Conservative MP for Kent, said the party’s electoral prospects had been “shattered” by migration figures in recent years and said he would seek a meeting with Braverman.
Asked by former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage on GB News why backbenchers were not speaking up, Holloway replied: “I would go further, it’s complete madness. Who would have thought that a Conservative government was effectively managing uncontrolled immigration?
“I know at least one group of us want to see the Home Secretary next week because it’s not just about the Tory party’s electoral prospects, which are shattered by this,” he told Farage.
Another MP told the Guardian they expected it to be raised at next week’s meeting of the 1922 Committee by backbench MPs.
“It’s already coming up on WhatsApp groups and people will be bringing it up with ministers, I’ll put it that way,” they said.
“Essentially, a lot of people voted Conservative on the back of a promise to get the numbers down below 200,000 and I don’t think they’ll be very happy if we now say we have a vague intention of getting it down to around half a million.”
“That attitude of just shrugging your shoulders and saying, ‘Well, I inherited it,’ just won’t cut it.” Voters don’t see party promises as corporate statements.”
Asked by political journalists in Westminster on Friday whether the prime minister had spoken to the home secretary before making his comments about the immigration figures, a Sunak spokesman said they worked “incredibly closely” on immigration policy.
The No 10 spokesman added that the Prime Minister would not “put a number” on her ambition to reduce overall migration, but that she would “take stock” of official figures on net migration due to be released this month.
Other Conservative backbenchers were waiting for the latest figures to be released after November figures showed net immigration at 500,000 for the year to June 2022.
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