News / Politics

May pledges to reduce UK net immigration

Monday, 04 July 2016 6:48 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 04 July 2016 6:52 AM ]

British Interior Minister Theresa May addresses a press conference in central London on June 30, 2016. (AFP)

UK Home Secretary Theresa May has vowed to limit immigration into Britain as the country takes the necessary measures to leave the European Union (EU).

May told the ITV on Sunday that Britain needs to bring immigration levels under control in order to maintain its security following the EU referendum on June 23 that saw 52 percent of British voters opting to leave the 28-member bloc.

“If we're looking ahead over the coming months and years once we get the issue of the EU negotiation sorted, the right deal for Britain, we may very well see in the run-up to that, people wanting to come here to the UK before that exit happens, so there are factors you can't always predict what the timing and numbers of those will be,” she said.

May, who is running to replace David Cameron as prime minister, added, “There's still a job to be done” in order to cut net immigration to the tens of thousands that the ruling Conservative party had promised upon Cameron's election.

Back in 2010, Cameron announced a series of new measures to tackle illegal migration and pledged to reduce net migration into Britain to below 100,000. But he announced his plan to quit office following the Brexit vote.

According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, the net migration to the UK, the difference between the number of people entering the European country and leaving it, rose to 333,000 in 2015.

“We need to bring control into movement of people coming into the UK from the EU. So we've got to move ahead looking across immigration dealing with both those sides of types of immigration,” May said, adding that the government should focus on reducing immigration to sustainable levels.

She also noted that London needed to adopt a clear negotiating position with the EU before triggering Article 50, a law which allows EU members to leave the bloc in accordance with their own constitution.

However, the secretary said the process would not happen before the end of this year.

The issue of migration was a key battleground in the run-up to the EU vote, with 'Leave' campaigners arguing that outside the union they would take back control over the borders.

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