Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has admitted that the previous Conservative government made a "catastrophic mistake" on immigration.Speaking on GB News' Camilla Tominey Show, Philp acknowledged the record levels of immigration under the Tories were "far, far too high".FULL STORY HERE.
00:00Sir Edward Lee, your colleague in the Conservatives, has said it was a catastrophic error that you made on immigration.
00:06When I ask you and your colleagues about legal migration and you talk about implementing a cap, you won't ever tell me what the cap is.
00:15Therefore, how can you be credible to the GB News audience if you won't say where you will set that cap?
00:22Not least when immigration reached record levels under the Conservatives. What was it? 960,000 in 2023.
00:32Yeah, that was that was far, far too high. That was completely wrong. And that was a catastrophic mistake.
00:37I agree with what Edward said about that. He's absolutely right.
00:40Now, there were some changes made by the last Conservative government late in their time in office.
00:45It's too late, I would honestly admit, which are we are getting the numbers down from that very high figure you mentioned down to about 300,000, 350,000.
00:53But that is still too high. That is still too high. What should it be capped?
00:57The Labour have announced today and they'll announce tomorrow. Well, let me come on to that.
01:01The little tinkering they're going to do, Yvette Cooper said this morning, it would take it down by a further 50,000.
01:06That is not enough either. Now, we think what would you do?
01:08Binding cap, voted for in Parliament. Let me come on to that, Camilla. We're going to put that concept to a vote in Parliament tomorrow again.
01:16That'll be the other vote we force. Now, we are working on what that number is going to be.
01:20We're not going to shoot from the hip and just make a number up, but it will be a lot, lot lower than that 300 odd thousand that is currently forecast.
01:27100,000 then?
01:28And the cut, we think it should be slashed more probably. And it will be, the number will be announced in due course, but we're going to reduce it further by a lot more than 50,000.
01:37The reduction needs to be more than that. It needs to dramatically reduce, even from the forecast levels that are currently forecast.
01:44Just give us a ballpark figure. We have David Cameron talking about tens of thousands.
01:49You don't want 340 or 50,000. So what kind of, are you talking about between 100,000 and 200,000?
01:56Because reform, who are nipping at your heels, are saying net zero immigration.
02:01So just give us a general figure. You must have one in mind.
02:04No, no. Camilla, we're doing the detailed work now. One of the reasons why trust in politics has been undermined is because for too long, politicians have just been asked a question like the question you just asked.
02:15It's a reasonable question.
02:16Yeah, you don't answer them.
02:17They just chucked a figure out there without doing the work. So what we are doing the work, the work is happening right now, literally right now.
02:24And when we've completed that work, which will be, you know, way ahead of an election, I can tell you that, well, well ahead of an election, we'll have a number.
02:32But when we announce that number, unlike previous numbers, it will be properly worked out.
02:36We'll have all of the detail so it actually stands up and so we can actually deliver it.
02:41The easiest thing in the world would be for me to stand here on this Sunday morning and chuck a number out there, right, and then it doesn't get done.
02:47We are never again. We are never again going to make that mistake. When we say something, we are going to mean it.
02:53We're going to have the working available so we can actually deliver it in government.
02:57And we're doing the work now and the public, your viewers, will know that number long before an election.
03:02But more importantly than that, they'll see the working and they can see how it will actually get delivered in practice.
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