Labour aims to halve net migration 'in first term

Labour wants to dramatically cut net migration to a "couple of hundred thousand" a year in its first term a senior frontbencher has said, as the party piles pressure on Rishi Sunak over last week's shock figures.

- KATE DEVLIN

Migration levels are now three times higher than they before Brexit, with 745,000 more people arriving than leaving last year. The revelation prompted a furious row within the Conservatives as former home secretary Suella Braverman accused ministers of a "slap in the face".

The government has said it will leave "no stone unturned" in efforts to reduce the numbers, now very far from David Cameron's "tens of thousands" target for 2015.

Shadow chief secretary Darren Jones said his party would hope to bring net migration down to what he said were "normal levels" of a couple of hundred thousand within five years. Asked if he hoped to be able to return to that figure in the first term of a Labour government, he said: "I think we probably would hope to do that, yes".