Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has appeared to rebuke Dame Priti Patel after the shadow foreign secretary declined to apologise for record-high immigration figures under the previous government. Speaking on The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots programme, Dame Priti said it was “totally distortionary” to suggest the previous government had “thrown open our borders”.
Official figures show net migration soared since the UK left the EU in January 2020, reaching a record 903,000 in the year to June 2023 before falling to 728,000 in the following year. Dame Priti, who served as home secretary from 2019 to 2022, said she was “not fine” with the levels but declined to apologise, noting the government had prioritised skilled workers after Brexit.
A spokesman for Mrs Badenoch later said the party under her leadership “will tell the truth about the mistakes we made”, adding: “While the last Conservative government may have tried to control numbers, we did not deliver.” Dame Priti subsequently clarified that the UK’s immigration system was “not fit for purpose” and she was “not happy about the high numbers”.
She welcomed the new leadership’s commitment to develop a plan including a hard cap on visas, stating: “More words will not solve the problem.” Mrs Badenoch has pledged to introduce such a cap if the Conservatives return to power, with her spokesman saying voters will have a “clear choice” between Labour’s high immigration and a new Conservative plan.
