Will Labour shatter any progress the Tories made on immigration?
There were 11 per cent fewer worker visas granted than last year, 26 per cent fewer health and care visas, and 13 per cent fewer study visas.
James Cleverly was taking all the credit. He said: "This is what I achieved when I was Home Secretary because I made the difficult decisions.
"And sadly, what we have seen since Labour has taken over is that they are reversing a number of those decisions. They are easing the visa restrictions that I put in place."
Patrick Christys delivers his verdict on an EU mobility scheme with the UK
GB News
Maybe, just maybe, we turned a corner.
But immediately the rumours start that Labour will reintroduce free movement of people for under 30s across Europe.
And it looks like the architect of Theresa May's Brexit surrender, Olly Robbins, could become head of the Civil Service.
Well, it looks a lot like free movement could be on the table now when it comes to Labour's negotiations with the EU going forward.
On illegal immigration, in the year ending June 2024, there were 38,784 detected irregular arrivals. That was 26 per cent fewer than in the year ending June 2023.
Now, 81 per cent of those arrived by small boat. But now there's no Rwanda deterrent.
And here's the killer number. A total of 118,882 people were waiting for an initial decision on their asylum application in the UK by the end of June this year. That's a large number of people.
Under this Labour Government, all of them will be allowed to try to claim asylum, even if they came here illegally.
The highest number of small boat arrivals came from Afghanistan, Iran, Vietnam, Turkey and Syria.
The only place we can realistically send people back to en masse is Vietnam.
Our Home Secretary and Prime Minister have said nothing about today's immigration figures. Is that because they know that they'll get a lot higher under their watch?
