RUTH Davidson’s call for the Conservatives to abandon their long-standing immigration target has been given short shrift by Theresa May’s number two.
Damian Green, the First Secretary of State and effective deputy Prime Minister, said the target had been set below 100,000 in order to deliver “sustainable” immigration.
Many people also voted for Brexit to cut immigration and “we should respect that”, he said.
Earlier this week the Scottish Tory leader prompted claims of a split at the top of her party on immigration by said it was time to rethink the target because of the “big reset button” of Brexit.
“The time for easy slogans is over,” she said pointedly, accusing both Labour and the Tories of failing to have a meaningful debate with the public about the pros and cons of migration.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to cut net migration to “tens of thousands” in the 2010 election, but the target has never been hit, and last year the figure was 248,000.
Ms Davidson wrote: “We have to ask whether the target continues to be the right one.”
Highlighting positive aspects of migration, she suggested it was vital to make Britain's economy grow and provide tax receipts for public services.
Mr Green, who was immigration minister from 2010 to 2012, said Ms Davidson had “an extremely interesting viewpoint” and was right to call for rational debate on immigration.
However he added: “The overall purpose of the government’s immigration policy is to have immigration at sustainable levels. We do identify that as being in the tens of thousands.
“It’s clear one of the forces behind the Brexit vote was a feeling in some parts of the UK that immigration had been allowed to be too high for too long and I think we should respect that.
“Clearly what we want to do is have an immigration policy that allows businesses to bring in the talent that’s needed, the specialist skills that we need in this country, and maintains Britain’s reputation as an open trading country, as an outward looking country.”
He also dismissed the SNP’s ambition for immigration to be devolved to Holyrood.
“Immigration has always been a reserved power for obvious practical reasons. Nobody wants any kind of border control inside the UK and I can’t see that changing.”
Labour said Ms Davidson’s comments exposed “deep splits” within the Tories on the issue, while the SNP suggested she was posturing.
A Number 10 source said this week Ms Davidson’s suggestions “weren’t going to happen”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel