Figure it out, PM
THE latest immigration figures are eye-watering – and certainly not the news Rishi Sunak needed after a positive response to the Government’s tax-cutting Autumn Statement.
A record 745,000 more people are coming into the country than left last year.
ReutersRishi Sunak must dramatically bring down the number of illegal migrants[/caption]
That’s three times the level it was before the Tories won the 2019 election promising to slash net migration.
At this rate, Britain’s population could soar to 85million by 2046. It is simply unsustainable.
Even if, against the odds, the Prime Minister manages to stop the boats bringing illegal migrants across the Channel, their numbers are a fraction of those coming here legally.
To be fair to Mr Sunak, the revised figures include many from the likes of Ukraine, Hong Kong and elsewhere, who have been given humanitarian visas.
That rubbishes any suggestion Britain is not a welcoming nation to genuine refugees.
But it is no wonder the Government is trying to get the work-shy off benefits when we bring in so many from abroad to do jobs Brits don’t have the skills for . . . or simply won’t do.
All the time that foreign workers and tens of thousands of foreign students arrive with large families of dependents, our overstretched hospitals, schools, public services and inadequate housing sector continue to struggle with the increase in demand.
Even Keir Starmer described the latest figures as “shockingly high”.
A laughable moan, seeing as he fought tooth and nail to keep us stuck inside the EU’s free movement regime.
Labour may have no plan of its own for controlling our borders.
But that doesn’t mean voters will easily forgive the Tories if, belatedly, they don’t start to dramatically bring down these troubling numbers.
No cut corners
HOT on the heels of the Autumn Statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hints that his mini-Budget was “just the start” of his pre-election giveaways.
Good. It needs to be.
With total taxes still at crippling levels for ordinary earners, businesses and the economy, it is imperative for growth and for people’s standards of living that the burden is reduced further.
The proportion of the country’s earnings taken in taxes is on course to be the highest since World War Two.
Indeed, it would be a serious concern if Mr Hunt didn’t think there is much more he needs to do to let tax-payers keep more of the money they earn.
But official forecasters from the Office for Budget Responsibility insist that in order to meet financial targets, fuel duty should be hiked by 5p in the spring.
We trust that the Chancellor knows that doing so would be an unmitigated disaster.
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