David Cameron: Immigration cut is ambition not policy

Reducing the number of new immigrants to 1980s levels is an "ambition" rather than Government policy, David Cameron said today.

The Prime Minister said the coalition agreement had set out a "series of policies" that he hoped would result in net immigration falling from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands a year.
But he conceded that the figure itself was not coalition policy.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable, both Liberal Democrats, have sought to distance themselves from Mr Cameron's rhetoric on immigration.

Mr Clegg said on Sunday that the Government's immigration policy would lead to a "reduction in numbers" but did not "pursue a fixed numerical target".

The PM was asked to confirm on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme whether the tens of thousands figure was an aim rather than a policy because it was not mentioned in the coalition agreement.
He said: "I'm not arguing with you about that."

He went on: "That is the ambition. The coalition agreement is clear about the policies and the policies are concerned with things like how do we stop bogus colleges and bogus students, how do we stop claiming family reunion entry when that's not really what they're doing...

"There are a series of policies - I believe if those policies are put in place, we'll get back to the levels of immigration we had in the '80s and '90s, which is tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands."