Priti Patel clarifies defence of party’s immigration record

Challenged on the figures in an interview on Thursday, Patel – who was home secretary between 2019 and 2022 – sought to defend the Conservative’s record on immigration.

She said the points-based system had allowed the government to control the flow of immigration based on “what our economy needs and what it doesn’t need”.

Asked if she should apologise to voters who were told Brexit would lead to a reduction in immigration, Patel said: “I did not mislead them”.

“We made it quite clear it would be people from the rest of the world, people with skills” coming into the UK post-Brexit, she added.

She said many people came to the UK on health and social care visas, adding: “Are we now saying we don’t need those people in our NHS?”

However, she also said she was “not fine” with big rises in immigration and argued that the previous government should have done more to train people in the UK instead of relying on foreign labour to fill gaps in sectors such as farming.

Asked why that had not happened, she said: “That’s a very good question that should have been posed to [environment ministers] and to others.

“I was doing other national security issues – the job of the home secretary.”

Responding to the interview, Labour labelled the Conservatives “out of touch” and said Patel “seems proud of her central role in the Tory open-border experiment”.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the Conservatives had a “disastrous record on immigration – and would do it again”.

A few hours after the interview was broadcast, Patel posted a message on social media in which she said: “The immigration system in our country is not fit for purpose.

“As I said in the interview, I was not happy about the high numbers while the Conservatives were in government.

“Our party is now under new leadership and it is important we learn from our mistakes and how we can do things better.”