Ministers may be right in assuming that nothing like the full complement of those entitled to settle do so. But what if they’re wrong?
Last year, the ONS predicted that the population would rise by another three million over the next decade. But home building lags behind.
Three million of them are unlikely to pitch up here, but government must plan for all eventualities – and support for its plan wouldn’t survive a mass influx.
If they don’t act, it will be left to the Brexit Party to provide the only outlet for opposition on an issue of deep concern to the voters.
In the second part of this mini-series, we reveal a pledge we are putting to all the hopefuls to bring down net inflow to 150,000 per year.
No less than the ERG, the group of three sees everything through the prism of Brexit – which, let it not be forgotten, they voted to support themselves.
There are indeed mechanisms for mitigating damaging immigration flows, but these are tightly constrained.
Diane Abbott is trying to forge an alliance between immigrant communities and an employer’s lobby keen to import labour.
Without a firm, stated base, we are vulnerable to being pushed around by the Commission. Ministers might find it uncomfortable to talk numbers, but they must.
Countries with which we strike future trade deals – the top priority for Party members according to our survey – should be treated more favourably than those with which we don’t.
220,000 people from EU countries came here last year. May’s U-turn thus has implications not only for rights but for numbers.
If we are also out of CAP, CFP and direct ECJ jurisdiction, able to negotiate our own trade deals and in the Single Market, it might not be such a bad outcome after all.
Brexit offers an opportunity to change our path – and failing to do so could bring very serious electoral consequences.
Some employers have been doing very nicely out of labour which puts up with low pay, poor conditions and little flexibility in their hours.
A new poll from Migration Watch shows that a majority of the public – and eight in ten Tories – want it reduced.