Tory leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat apologises for record net immigration - after Priti Patel wouldn't

He also attacked Chancellor Rachel Reeves for choosing to "pay off her union paymasters" with big hikes in public sector pay while taking away the pensioners' winter fuel allowance.

The Conservatives were heavily criticised ahead of last month's election for overseeing record increases in net migration, which hit 685,000 last year and 764,000 in 2022.

Last week Dame Priti Patel, the former Home Secretary who is running to be Conservative leader, declined to apologise for the party's record in Government.

However asked on Chopper's Political Podcast if he would like to apologise, Tugendhat said: "Absolutely. We've all got to stand on our record. We've got to make sure immigration is at a level that the British people and British society can integrate."

Tugendhat, who was the security minister from 2022 to 2024, said that if were elected Tory leader he would pledge to cut net migration - the difference between those arriving and leaving the UK - to tens of thousands a year.

He said: "I'm interested in the levels that we saw between 1990 and sort of 2010. It was about 100,000, roughly 120. There isn't an exact number because it's going to depend on what you need. But look, that's the ballpark figure we're looking at, right?"

Tugendhat said that Britons understood that this annual figure could be swelled by one-off emergencies, such as the influx of migrants from Ukraine and Hong Kong.

He added: "The reason I apologise is because we can see the effects, right? We can see the effects in communities across the United Kingdom.

"But this isn't just about pointing at the problem. It's about fixing it. And that's why what we really need is a massive economic change because we need Brits to be taking the jobs that we are talking about now.

"That means changing the way we pay, changing the way we invest and actually changing the British economy. Because frankly, at the moment it's not delivering properly for the British people."

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Also in the interview, Tugedhat said it was wrong to dismiss concern about immigration as a "far right" issue. He said: "It is absolutely not."

Turning to the rioting which followed the killing of three girls in Southport, Tugendhat said: "This is fundamentally a criminal act that was not stopped early enough. This isn't a political act. Let's not pretend that's a political act. It wasn't. And this isn't.

"We should never allow this to devalue the absolutely legitimate right of people to talk about migration, to talk about the right numbers of people."

Tugendhat also took aim at Chancellor Rachel Reeves for sanctioning inflation-busting pay rises for public sector workers while taking away the winter fuel allowance from pensioners.

He said: "She has decided to pay off her union paymasters rather than supporting the interests of you, the British people, pensioners, patients. They're making choices."

He added: "She's literally said it in a speech that if a strike is too expensive, she'll pay off the strikers. So guess what the strikers are doing?

"They're saying, well, this strike is going to be even more expensive, so you can pay me off with more. And now where is that money coming from?

"It's coming from pensioners coming from the Winter Fuel Payment. And it's going to come from your taxes. You bet."

He added: "When it gets cold, it gets unpleasant. But it normally it's okay. The further north you go, the worse this is.

"So if you're interested in levelling up, if you care about the union, if you care about the United Kingdom, if you care about pensioners, this is the wrong answer."

Listen to Chopper's Political Podcast on Apple podcasts or Spotify, or watch it on GB News' YouTube channel