Robert Jenrick has called for a decade of net emigration – and said asylum seekers should be housed in camps.
The Tory justice spokesman also argued that the points-based system created under previous governments was the ‘worst policy mistake’ in his lifetime.
It came as Sir Keir Starmer vowed not to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), saying it would be a ‘profound mistake’.
Mr Jenrick said he wanted to see a period of net emigration – where more people leave the country than arrive.
‘I think the country now needs breathing space after this period of mass migration,’ he told The Spectator.
‘The age of being open to the world and his wife, who are low-wage, low-skilled individuals, and their dependents has to come to an end.
‘Reversing recent low-skilled migration will likely mean a sustained period of net emigration. I would support that.’
Legal migration has been more harmful to the country than illegal migration, he argued, ‘due to the sheer eye-watering numbers’.
Robert Jenrick has called for a decade of net emigration – and said asylum seekers should be housed in camps
Jenrick said he wanted to see a period where more people leave the country than arrive
He agreed when asked if this period of net emigration could last a decade, adding that the country should still embrace high-skilled migrants.
While paying tribute to Nigel Farage and his policies by saying ‘there’s a lot to welcome’, Mr Jenrick went further than the Reform UK leader by saying asylum seekers ‘should be detained in camps’.
‘The facilities will need to be rudimentary prisons, not holiday camps,’ he said. ‘It’s not what Reform have suggested, which is cabins with a fence around them.’
Criticising Mr Farage’s suggestion that a Reform government would focus on deporting undocumented males, rather than women and children, Mr Jenrick said this would encourage people smugglers to exploit women and girls and encourage young men to pose as children.
Reflecting on his time as immigration minister under Rishi Sunak, he said the points-based system created under Boris Johnson and Priti Patel was an error.
‘At the Home Office I walked into a total bin fire. I think the points-based system that was created by the ministers at the time was the worst public policy mistake in my lifetime,’ he said.
Mr Jenrick has argued that the only way Britain can get a grip on immigration is to leave the ECHR. But today Sir Keir said it would be a ‘profound mistake’ to withdraw from the treaty during PMQs in the Commons.
He ruled out leaving the ECHR but said the Government would look at the interpretation of some of its provisions.
Sir Keir added: ‘We do need to make sure that both the convention and other instruments are fit for the circumstances we face at the moment.’
