Former Tory immigration minister Robert Jenrick has called for the Home Office to be split in two as part of a 30-point plan to curb migration.
Mr Jenrick, who is seen as a potential Conservative leadership contender, has been ramping up pressure on Rishi Sunak over the issue after quitting his government post last year.
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In a report he co-authored for the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), a centre-right think-tank, the MP for Newark said the government must “undo the disastrous post-Brexit liberalisations” that have “betrayed” the public’s wish for lower immigration.
He proposed a number of policies that should be implemented ahead of the looming general election, including breaking up the Home Office to create a department more focused on border control.
He said voters “deserve a department whose sole mission is controlling immigration and securing our borders”.
The proposals also include capping health and care visas at 30,000, scrapping the graduate route for international students, and indexing salary thresholds for visa routes in line with inflation.
Mr Jenrick said: “It would be unforgivable if the government did not use the time before the general election to undo the disastrous post-Brexit liberalisations that betrayed the express wishes of the British public for lower immigration.
“The changes we propose today would finally return numbers to the historical norm and deliver the highly selective, highly-skilled immigration system voters were promised.
“These policies could be implemented immediately and would consign low-skilled mass migration to the past.”
Mr Jenrick was the immigration minister between October 2022 and December 2023.
He quit over the government’s inability to get the Rwanda deportation policy off the ground, and has since become one of the Mr Sunak’s loudest critics, particularly on migration.
Official estimates published in November…
