United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Theresa May vowed to stick to her party's pledge to cut the migration figures down to “tens of thousands”, saying it was important to hit this target given the pressure immigration had put on public services and those on lower incomes.
“I think that it is important that we do say and continue to say that we do want to bring migration to sustainable levels. We believe that is the tens of thousands,” May said. “Once we leave the EU, we will have the opportunity to ensure we have control of our borders. We will be able to establish our rules for people coming from the EU,” she said.
Immigration is set to be one of the central issues in the campaign for the June 8 general election, with a related focus on Brexit. There have been claims that the government has been overwhelmed with Brexit planning and is neglecting other vital issues such as healthcare and home security.
The ruling Conservatives have promised new migration controls after the UK leaves the EU when freedom of movement rules will no longer apply, but they have yet to set out the precise model they would adopt.
The Liberal Democrat party attacked the ruling Conservative party for its stance. The party’s shadow home secretary, Brian Paddick, said May’s stand on the issue would damage ties with countries like India.
“The leave campaign, many members of which are now in the Cabinet, made a clear commitment during the referendum campaign to lift visa restrictions on people from India and other Commonwealth countries, it is now clear that this is another leave lie,” Paddick said.
"Britain's Asian communities are realising that these complacent, divisive and Brexit-style parties do not represent them and our increase of the vote to 18 per cent in last week's local election demonstrates the Liberal Democrats are making significant inroads with voters up and down the country, including many Asian voters," he said.
"India is a key strategic partner for the United Kingdom and the British-Indian community contributes so much to our country. Liberal Democrat immigration policies will, therefore, seek to maximise the economic, cultural and social benefit of these relationships and welcome immigration as a blessing, not a curse," said Lib Dem leader Tim Farron. The Lib Dems have fielded an increased number of immigrant-origin candidates and are running on an anti-Brexit platform, hoping to exploit the 48 per cent of the British citizens who voted to stay in the EU.
See also: Indian-origin candidates hope to capitalise on anti-Brexit sentiment in UK polls
Under former Prime Minister David Cameron, the level of net migration rose to a record 330,000, but May, then as home secretary in charge of immigration, refused to abandon the tens of thousands target.
The increasingly tightening immigration policies of the Tory-led UK government have already seen a major decline in figures of foreign students from countries like India coming to study at UK universities.
