Sunak refused to meet me for a year to discuss legal migration, says Braverman

Rishi Sunak refused to meet Suella Braverman for a year to discuss cutting legal migration, the former home secretary has claimed.

Mrs Braverman said the Prime Minister had not regarded soaring levels of net migration as “an important issue for the British people”.

She was sacked by Mr Sunak in November after writing an article attacking the Metropolitan Police for favouring pro-Palestinian marchers and failing to take a tougher line on the protests.

The pair had also clashed over policies on legal and illegal migration, where Mrs Braverman was pushing for more radical measures including an annual cap on immigration.

Revised figures published shortly after her departure revealed net migration had risen to a record 745,000 in the year to December 2022 – more than twice pre-Brexit levels and in breach of the Tories’ 2019 manifesto pledge to reduce numbers.

Speaking on Panorama, to be broadcast on BBC One on Monday, Mrs Braverman said: “I think the Prime Minister has not necessarily assumed that it’s an important issue for the British people.

“I struggled myself, as home secretary, even to have a meaningful conversation with him about it. I was left to written correspondence on several occasions throughout a period of 12 months, putting forward policy proposals. But he refused to talk to me.

“We talked about the boats every week, twice a week. We talked to each other a lot about policing and security. On legal migration, I was unable to get a hearing with the Prime Minister for 12 months.”

No 10 has been contacted for comment. The BBC said it had approached Downing Street over the remarks on the programme, called Immigration: The UK’s Record Rise, but had not received a response.

As well as a cap, Mrs Braverman and Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, called for a hike in the salary threshold required before a skilled worker could come to the UK from £26,200 to more than £40,000 and the scrapping of the two-year graduate visa because of its use as a “back door” to stay in the UK on low-paid jobs.

James Cleverly, who replaced Mrs Braverman as Home Secretary, announced a five-point plan to cut migration by 300,000, about a quarter of the 1.2 million people who arrived in Britain last year.

Measures included an increase in the threshold for skilled foreign workers to £38,700, a ban on foreign care workers bringing in their relatives in line with a similar restriction on postgraduate students, and ditching the scheme allowing companies to pay overseas staff 20 per cent below the going rate in shortage areas.

Most Conservative MPs welcomed the tougher measures on net migration, as did Mrs Braverman, but she also said the package was “too late, and the Government can go further”.

On Monday, the Home Office launched a social media campaign in Vietnam, with adverts on Facebook and YouTube intended to deter migrants from coming to the UK illegally.

The adverts will “set out the risks of being indebted to and exploited by the people-smuggling gangs who profit from facilitating small boat crossings”.

An increasing proportion of small boat migrants come from the south-east Asian country. Vietnam is one of the top 10 nationalities for migrants crossing the Channel illegally, the Home Office said.

The campaign will also warn prospective Vietnamese migrants of the “reality of living in the UK illegally with no right to be in the UK and no access to public services or funding”, and use “real testimonies from those who regret coming to the UK illegally”.

In one advert, a migrant shares his experience of sleeping in a camp in Calais for five nights under the supervision of armed guards before taking the journey across the Channel from France to the UK.

The migrant, referred to as K, says: “Never again would I risk my life in a small boat, even if you bribed me.”

The campaign will also direct Vietnamese social media users to a website featuring videos from Border Force officers describing “shocking cases” and their experiences of “rescuing small boat migrants from life-threatening danger in the Channel”.

The Home Office said the launch followed “successful social media activity” in Albania, France and Belgium, adding that similar campaigns were “also being considered for other priority countries”.

Mr Cleverly said: “This is a powerful campaign, which demonstrates first-hand that life for people arriving here illegally is a far cry from the lies they have been sold by the gangs on the other side of the Channel.

“Last year, similar work contributed to a 90 per cent reduction in small boat arrivals from Albania, and overall numbers are down by a third, but there is more to do.

“Expanding our campaign to Vietnam – another key partner in our work to tackle illegal migration – will help us to save more lives and dent the business model of the criminals who profit from this vile trade.”