Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has branded Sir Keir Starmer's stance on immigration "outrageous", criticising his failure to implement a numerical cap on arrivals.
Speaking to GB News, Braverman insisted the immigration issue could be "relatively straightforward to fix" if there was political will.
"Keir Starmer's stance is outrageous. He could, if he wanted to, implement a cap which made a commitment in law to limit the number of people coming into this country," she said.
Her comments come as new figures revealed net migration hit a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
Suella Braverman lashed out at Starmer
GB NEWS
"This is on Keir Starmer now. If these figures start to rise, it will definitely be a choice," Braverman added.
Starmer has launched a fierce attack on the Tories earlier today, accusing them of running a "one nation experiment in open borders" that led to record migration figures.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Suella Braverman spoke to Christopher Hope on GB News
GB NEWS
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, the Prime Minister said the unprecedented levels had occurred "by design not accident" under the Conservatives.
"Time and again the Conservative Party promised they would get the numbers down. Time and again they failed," Starmer declared.
He added that this failure wasn't merely bad luck or a global trend, but rather "a different order of failure" that happened deliberately as "policies were reformed deliberately to liberalise immigration."
The latest ONS figures showed net migration reached 728,000 in the year to June.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a press conference on migration at 10 Downing StreetPAThe Prime Minister outlined Labour's plans to tackle immigration through several key measures.
Starmer announced an imminent white paper setting out plans to reduce immigration numbers.
He pledged to reform the points-based system where sectors are found to be over-reliant on immigration.
"We will also crack down on any abuse of the visa routes," Starmer told the press conference.
He warned that employers who refuse to comply with immigration rules would face consequences: "Any employers who refuse to play ball, they'll be banned from hiring overseas labour."
The Labour leader also announced a new security agreement with Iraq aimed at tackling people smuggling "before it reaches our shores."
Braverman outlined specific measures she believes could swiftly reduce immigration numbers.
The former Home Secretary suggested scrapping the graduate visa scheme and raising the salary threshold.
She also proposed restricting the number of foreign students entering universities, which she identified as "a massive number of those coming in."
"All of those things would be relatively simple to implement and lead to quick results in the net migration figures," Braverman told GB News.
The criticism comes as Home Office figures revealed spending on the asylum system has reached a record £5.38 billion.
