Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has admitted that more may need to be done to drive down numbers, despite the package of measures outlined by the Home Secretary yesterday.
He told GB News: “I’ve been very clear that net migration is far too high. And that's why we've worked so hard to bring forward this very significant set of measures.
“You’re right to say that more things may need to be done, but without question this is a big step forward. We've thought through carefully a set of measures across a range of different aspects of our visa and immigration system. And now we're going to take action to implement them as quickly as possible.
“It's going to mean that the public will see in the months and years ahead, very significant reductions in net migration and that is what the public voted for the 2019 election and what I am as immigration minister, the whole government is now determined to deliver.”
Asked about care home workers during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he said: “We believe that there is a role for the NHS and social care to recruit talented and compassionate individuals from overseas but we shouldn't be relying upon that.
“That's not a sustainable way to staff our NHS or social care. When we created the social care visa just two years ago, it was in the immediate aftermath of COVID when it was particularly difficult to recruit people and it was never designed to be the long term, it was certainly never designed to lead to a quarter of a million care workers and their dependents coming into the country. And so it's right that we take action.”
He added: “One of the great things that came with leaving the European Union is we now control the levers of migration. And we have to respond to changing circumstances and use those levers.
“The Department of Health has created a comprehensive workforce plan for social care, which is backed by £2 billion, a lot of which is going to be spent on improving skills, training, career development, and above all pay for care workers so that more people from our own country, more domestic workers can build a career in social care. And that's absolutely right."
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