DAME Priti Patel was savaged today after trying to chalk up eye-watering immigration as a Brexit win.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary defended the Tories’ record on borders despite more arrivals than ever during their tenure.
Political Editor Harry Cole grills Dame Priti Patel
Immigration spiked under successive Tory governments
It sparked a hasty slap-down from her own leader Kemi Badenoch who has admitted the Conservatives “did not deliver” on the promise to control immigration.
Appearing on The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots, Dame Priti was challenged over the 1.2million who came last year – adding 728,000 to the population when departures are factored.
Dame Priti said: “We should first of all recognize that we ended free movement…
“It’s legal migration, it’s legal. People who come here and work and contribute to our economy, the brightest and the best.
“Look at the points based immigration system for the first time ever we have a points based immigration system.
“Counting people in and out. You can turn off the immigration system at any stage in terms of what our economy needs and doesn’t need.”
Dame Priti – who was Home Secretary under Boris Johnson from 2019 to 2022 – claimed that much of the record migration was due to humanitarian visas issued to people from Ukraine and Hong Kong.
Grilled by host Harry Cole, she hit back: “What would you say to the Ukrainians that are in our country? What would you say to the British Nationals Overseas?”
In the year ending 2022, a total 188,000 visas were issued for humanitarian reasons, a fraction of the 1.07million migrants who arrived in Britain.
The majority of migrants are those coming on work or study visas, as well as their family.
Harry asked if Dame Priti – who played a leading role in the 2016 referendum – wanted to apologise for vowing to tame immigration only to “throw open the borders”.
The Tory said: “That’s a total distortion. And that’s not true. And to be quite frank, we made it quite clear it would be people from the rest of the world, people with skills based on our economy.”
Her remarks were wildly out of step with Ms Badenoch, who has said sorry for the sky-high numbers on the Tory watch.
Slapping down Dame Priti, the Tory leader’s spokesman said: As Kemi said when she committed to a hard cap on visas in November, under her leadership the Conservative Party will tell the truth about the mistakes we made.
While the last Conservative government may have tried to control numbers, we did not deliver.”
Political rivals last night seized on Dame Priti’s comments, with Nigel Farage blasting: “The Conservative Party are proud of their disastrous record on immigration — and would do it again.”
A Labour spokesman added: “The Conservatives are totally out of touch with reality. Priti Patel has refused to apologise for record high net migration under the Tories.
“Instead, she seems proud of her central role in the Tory open border experiment.”
Dame Priti Patel on Never Mind The Ballots Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
