Tories have been promising to clamp down on immigration for 13 years - Yorkshire Post Letters

Following on from the Conservative party presiding over the highest level of taxation in decades; rocketing energy costs; highest consumer price inflation for 30 years; the longest ever NHS waiting lists; we now learn of the recently released, record net migration figure of 745,000 adding further to their treacheries on the issue of migration.

Over the last 13 years the Conservative Party have gone into four general elections with manifesto pledges to reduce inward, legal and illegal migration.

The 2010 manifesto stated: ‘But immigration today is too high and needs to be reduced. We do not need to attract people to do jobs that could be carried out by British citizens, given the right training and support. So we will take steps to take net migration back to the levels of the 1990s – tens of thousands a year, not hundreds of thousands.’

The 2015 manifesto stated: ‘We also know that immigration must be controlled. When immigration is out of control, it puts pressure on schools, hospitals and transport; and it can cause social pressures if communities find it hard to integrate.’ ‘We will keep our ambition of delivering annual net migration in the tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands.’

The 2017 manifesto stated; ‘But with annual net migration standing at 273,000, immigration to Britain is still too high. It is our objective to reduce immigration to sustainable levels, by which we mean annual net migration in the tens of thousands, rather than the hundreds of thousands we have seen over the last two decades. We will, therefore, continue to bear down on immigration from outside the European Union.’

The 2019 manifesto stated; ‘We will take back control of our borders.’ ‘A firmer and fairer Australian-style points-based immigration system will give us real control over who is coming in and out.’ ‘There will be fewer lower-skilled migrants and overall numbers will come down. And we will ensure that the British people are always in control.’

In the total absence of any of these pledges being delivered over the last 13 years it would be no exaggeration to claim that these pledges of migration control were made purely for the purpose of electoral gain whilst shamefully, having absolutely no intention of honouring those pledges.

Even Suella Braverman, in her recent stunning ‘resignation’ letter to PM Sunak, rebuked him for failing to uphold the immigration control pledges he gave to those MPs in return for their support in his bid to be ‘appointed’ PM.

She stated “You have manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies. Either your distinctive style of government means you are incapable of doing so. Or, as I must surely conclude now, you never had any intention of keeping your promises. These are not just pet interests of mine. They are what we promised the British people in our 2019 manifesto which led to a landslide victory. They are what people voted for in the 2016 Brexit referendum.”

In conclusion, if by any chance there remains an individual out there who is still prepared to believe any pledge that the Conservative Party or MP utters regarding immigration control then I have a bridge that I would like to sell them.