No ‘numerical target’ for net migration, says UK Minister

A “numerical target” for net migration will not be part of the Government’s plan for change due to be announced this week, a UK Cabinet minister has said.

Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster suggested that targets for net migration “haven’t worked very well”.

Change

Later this week, the Prime Minister will set out a “plan for change” with milestones in key policy areas, to try and achieve the missions laid out in their election manifesto.

It comes less than a week after figures showed net migration hit a record 906,000 in 2023.

Mr McFadden was asked by the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme whether the announcement would include a target on reducing net migration.

He said: said: “Targets for net migration haven’t worked very well.”

Mr McFadden said: “What’s happened is it’s gone up an awful lot in recent years. We do want to bring it down.

“The exact number that you need will always ebb and flow depending on the needs of the economy.”

He went on: “We’re not going to have a numerical target for net migration, but we are going to make sure that we do more to train our own workforce and do more to get long term sick people off benefits and into work.”

He had earlier told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme that “the document that we’re going to publish this week will talk about migration, both legal and illegal.”

Numbers

Revised figures released on Thursday estimated that net migration hit a record 906,000 in 2023.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving the country reached the higher than previously thought peak in the 12 months to June last year, after being revised up 166,000 from the initial estimate of 740,000.

Shadow minister Victoria Atkins said that the Conservative government wanted to see migration decrease when it was in power “but it didn’t”.

She told the same BBC programme: “We know that we wanted to see immigration come down and it didn’t.”

“We want to make some real movement on this if we are, and when we are, lucky enough to be back in Government.”

The Prime Minister will this week kick off what he has called the “next phase” of Government, as he announces the milestones for his “missions” that Number 10 say will allow the public to hold Sir Keir and his team to account on their promises and will be reached by the end of the Parliament.

Reform

The milestones will run alongside public sector reform, Downing Street said.

Writing in The Sun On Sunday, the Prime Minister compared “focusing the machinery of government” to “turning an oil tanker” and said that “acceptance of managed decline” has “seeped into parts of Whitehall”.

“The British people aren’t fools. They know a ruthless focus on priorities is essential,” he wrote.

Ahead of the announcement due later this week, Sir Keir said in a statement: “This plan for change is the most ambitious yet honest programme for government in a generation

“Mission-led government does not mean picking milestones because they are easy or will happen anyway – it means relentlessly driving real improvements in the lives of working people.”

He added: “Given the unprecedented challenges we have inherited we will not achieve this by simply doing more of the same, which is why investment comes alongside a programme of innovation and reform.”