Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has admitted that the previous Conservative government made a "catastrophic mistake" on immigration.
Speaking on GB News' Camilla Tominey Show, Philp acknowledged the record levels of immigration under the Tories were "far, far too high".
"That was completely wrong and that was a catastrophic mistake," he said.
"I agree with what Edward Leigh said about that, he is absolutely right. There were some changes made by the last Conservative government late in their time in office, too late, I would honestly admit."
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp admitted that the Tories made a 'catastrophic mistake' on immigration
GB News
Philp conceded that while numbers had fallen, current levels remained excessive.
"We are getting the numbers down from that very high figure you mentioned, down to about 300, 350,000 but that is still too high. That is still too high," Philp told GB News.
He criticised the current Home Secretary's approach to reducing immigration: "Yvette Cooper said this morning, it would take it down by a further 50,000, that is not enough either," he stated.
The Shadow Home Secretary insisted the Conservatives would make deeper cuts to immigration numbers: "The cut, we think it should be slashed more and the number will be announced in due course. But we're going to reduce by a lot more than 50,000. The reduction needs to be more than that."
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Philp revealed the Conservatives will force a vote in the Commons on repealing the Human Rights Act for immigration matters.
"We have a first step solution to that, and that is to essentially repeal the Human Rights Act in relation to all immigration matters, including foreign criminals," he explained.
This would mean "UK judges will no longer be able to use human rights judgments to keep foreign criminals and others in the UK".
"We Conservatives will be voting for it. Starmer and Yvette Cooper and those weak Labour MPs might vote against it," Philp added.
Philp told GB News that the party is still 'finalising the numbers' on a proposed cap
GB News
The Conservatives are proposing a binding immigration cap that would be voted on in Parliament.
The Shadow Home Secretary promised the cap would represent a significant reduction from current immigration levels.
"We think there should be a binding cap voted for in Parliament. We're going to put that concept to a vote in Parliament tomorrow," Philp said.
He explained the party is still finalising the specific figure for the cap: "We're working on what that number is going to be. We're not going to shoot from the hip and just make a number up, but it will be a lot, lot lower than that 300-odd thousand that is currently."
