Rishi Sunak has been condemned by Brexiteers following the record-breaking surge in net migration figures.
Earlier this week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said estimated net migration stood at a provisional 672,000 in the year to June 2023, up from 607,000 in the previous 12 months.
The total for the year to December 2022 was also revised up to 745,000, meaning it broke all previous records.
Despite the record figures, Mr Sunak has refused to apologise though he admitted that the levels “are too high”.
Speaking to GB News, a veteran insider from the 2016 Vote Leave campaign warned that the prime minister’s failure could lead the UK back into the EU.
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They predicted that the UK will “likely rejoin” the Brussels bloc in the next 10 years, adding: “Voters clearly voted for vastly reduced immigration levels and that was clear from how the campaign was run.
“We had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to restructure the economy and make it a high-pay, high-skilled economy but the Government has gone down the avenue of low-skilled mass immigration and pumped the numbers up.
“It shows a total disregard for the electorate because even some of the MPs who claim they wanted Brexit have a totally different view to the general population.
“The Government just doesn’t understand what people want in this country. And if they do understand then they don’t care.”
Another veteran Eurosceptic campaigner from the Brexit referendum said the figures showed that “the Brexit project is dead under the Tories”.
They said: “Voters were promised time and again that a post-Brexit border policy would help alleviate the crises in healthcare, housing, and the standard of living being caused by mass immigration.”
They added that they felt people have been “lied to”, adding that there is an “understandable anger” among Rishis Sunak’s Conservative Party members.
Mr Sunak is believed to be considering raising minimum salary thresholds for legal migrants as a way to stop a revolt from the Tory right.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick will soon unveil a five-point plan to reduce legal migration.
He is said to be pushing Mr Sunak to bring in a cap on the total number of NHS and social care visas, along with a ban on foreign social care workers bringing dependants to the UK.
Meanwhile, former prime minister Boris Johnson has argued that ongoing high levels of immigration mean “that the anti-Brexit brigade were totally wrong about the attractions of post-Brexit Britain”.
Sacked Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “Today’s record numbers are a slap in the face to the British public who have voted to control and reduce migration at every opportunity. We must act now to reduce migration to sustainable levels. Brexit gave us the tools. It’s time to use them.”
