‘That Happened On Your Watch’: GMB Host Blasts Ex-Tory Immigration Minister Claiming Net Migration ‘Too High’

Former Tory immigration minister Robert Jenrick was taken to task by host Susanna Reid who pointed out it was during his tenure that migration figures spiked as he seeks to present a new immigration reform plan to cut net migration figures down to “the tens of thousands.”

Jenrick appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, who stepped down last year over disagreements on migration policy under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s leadership, to present a comprehensive 30-point strategy aimed at reining in immigration numbers. His proposals include dismantling the Home Office to establish a new department dedicated to border control.

The former minister’s announcement comes in the wake of revelations that net migration hit a record 672,000 in the year to June 2023.

Reid, however, was unwilling to allow Jenrick to pass the buck over the effectiveness of Conservative immigration policies after the party’s 14 years at the helm.

Reid challenged him directly: “That record level of legal migration, some people might think it’s a good thing because immigrants bring enormous value to the economy. But you are arguing that it’s too high. That happened on your watch, on the Conservative government’s watch.”

She added: “It’s all very well to go back 30 years. This is 14 years that the Conservatives have been in government and we have record levels of legal migration. You’ve now resigned from the government and expect to have a powerful voice, noises off, complaining about it.”

Jenrick, defending his position, said: “Well, first of all, I’m not just complaining about it, I’m actually putting forward a fully worked through plan which could actually fix this problem and get us back to the tens of thousands.”

“Outside of government, though,” the host replied.

Jenrick responded: “Well, sometimes you have to do that, don’t you? If you believe in something, why are you in politics but to stand up for your principles? And I ultimately didn’t believe that the government was going in the right direction on this issue.”

He continued: “But to your question, I do think that the government has made some serious errors after we left the European Union, because for the first time in my lifetime we actually took back control of the levers of migration. We ended free movement. And that meant that politicians had much more control than they’d ever had in the past. But they did make some serious mistakes. And that, to me, was a betrayal of Brexit.”

He added: “What we’ve got to do now is fix it. And we still have time within this parliament to make the changes that I’m proposing, which would ensure that we get back down to the tens of thousands.”

Watch above on Good Morning Britain.