Nigel Farage claimed net migration could have been capped at 50,000 a year if the Tories had taken the right approach after Britain left the European Union.
The former leader of the Brexit Party accused the Government of “ignoring the will of the people” after net migration hit a new record high.
Official figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics showed net migration of 606,000 last year, almost triple the pre-Brexit average of between 200,000 and 250,000.
Saying that before the EU referendum he had suggested that net migration could be reduced to 50,000, Farage told Sky News: “Yes, of course. Of course we can. We could have reduced it to 50,000. If I put in the lead. we would have reached 50,000 a year, no doubt, but they didn’t.
“The problem we have now is… I said 10 years ago that I wanted to cause an earthquake in British politics. Well, we had the earthquake, we’re still suffering the aftershocks, we’re still suffering the aftershocks… because Parliament and the The government has ignored the will of the people.
“They’ve ignored what was said in that Brexit referendum and so now there’s a bigger question about how we’re going to change politics in this country.”
Rishi Sunak yesterday said the numbers were “too high” and remained committed to bringing them down. He denied that net migration was out of control.
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