Cracking down on immigration is no longer an election-winning policy – no matter who wins the Tory leadership race

The new party leader will need to appeal to liberal, centre-ground voters in order to stay in government, starting with learning from the mistakes of the hostile environment since 2010

While Theresa May struggles to rush out some “legacy” policies in her final weeks in office, the contenders to succeed her are already mapping out how they would dismantle some parts of her programme.

The election of a new Conservative leader later this month provides a golden opportunity to reset the dial in one important area: immigration.

Ms May stuck stubbornly to the target to reduce net migration below 100,000 a year set by David Cameron before the 2010 general election. Mr Cameron has a lot to answer for: not only did he and Ms May fail to hit the target, he also failed to win the changes to free movement he promised before renegotiating the UK’s EU membership terms. This contributed to the vote to leave in the 2016 referendum.