Think the Tories want to slash the number of people coming to the UK? Think again

With signs that the British public is more on board with immigration than it has been in decades, Rishi Sunak’s party is struggling to plot a new course

Net migration to the UK has reached a record level (PA)

The government’s immigration policy is incoherent.

We have a government which describes net migration as “too high” but doesn’t really want to bring it down, because its higher priority is economic growth. Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, can point to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s report in March, which upgraded its long-term net migration forecast from 205,000 to 245,000 a year and said that the larger population resulting from this would add 0.5 per cent to GDP by 2027. With growth sluggish, and the UK only just about dodging recession this year, every little helps.

While the Home Office wants to reduce it, other departments use it to solve their problems or avoid new ones.