Robert Jenrick Takes Credit For Labour’s Migration Work

Robert Jenrick has somehow tried to take credit for the recent decline in net migration despite not being in government for three years.

The MP for Newark used to be the Conservative immigration minister under Rishi Sunak but quit in 2023 when he claimed the government was not taking enough action to cut migration numbers.

He defected to Reform in January and is now the the right-wing party’s Treasury spokesperson.

Labour’s home secretary Shabana Mahmood has overseen net migration fall to its lowest level since early 2021, as official figures revealed this week.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed net migration fell to 171,000 in 2025, which is a 82% fall since its peak in early 2023 of 944,000.

But Jenrick told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “I secured the very changes that are making this, announced them and then resigned because they weren’t enough.

“I want the numbers to come down much more.”

He continued: “Reform… We don’t want hundreds of thousands of people coming into the country. We want net emigration.

“That means more people leaving every year than are coming in. Why? So that we can reduce pressure on housing, people getting a doctor or a dentist, and stop this constant pressure where British workers wages are being hammered because there’s an easy lever of foreign labour.

“So it’s got to keep coming down. Reform have a very clear policy, net emigration. We’re going to get it right down and have a long period, maybe a decade or more, which would give the country breathing space.”

Earlier this week, Jenrick also pointed out the 246,000 British nationals left the UK, which he branded the “Starmer exodus”.

But the ONS said the number of British nationals emigrating has been “broadly stable” in recent years, with 257,000 leaving in 2024 and 255,000 in 2023.

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