Jacob Rees-Mogg had a rare moment of contrition on BBC Question Time last night, admitting the Conservatives had “failed very badly” in managing migration after Brexit. The former Brexit opportunities minister didn’t hold back as he acknowledged that the Tories’ promises of control went awry.
This came after net migration figures for the year to June 2023 revealed an eye-watering total of 900,000, leaving many wondering how the post-Brexit “control” plan had gone so spectacularly off-piste. Labour leader Keir Starmer described it as an “open borders experiment,” which clearly hit a nerve.
“There was not an open borders experiment,” Rees-Mogg protested, before conceding: “Migration policy failed. It failed very badly, and it failed to deliver what the British people wanted.”
Host Fiona Bruce wasn’t about to let him off lightly. She brought up Robert Jenrick, who previously called the migration surge “a day of shame” for the Conservative Party. Rees-Mogg didn’t flinch: “As a Conservative, let me apologise for that. We failed, and we were culpable for that.”
Rees-Mogg admitted it was all the more galling because the UK, post-Brexit, had control of its migration system but still managed to “let far too many people in.” He chalked it up to a mix of Covid-related decisions, economic pressure from the Office for Budget Responsibility, and poor management of the new system.
But the mood shifted when Bruce pointed out that net migration was actually lower before Brexit than after. Rees-Mogg wasn’t having it. “Well hold on, the pre-Brexit figures were completely wrong,” he shot back, accusing the Office for National Statistics of grossly underestimating the numbers.
“For years, they told us around two million EU nationals would register to stay post-Brexit. The actual figure was over five million,” he added, insisting that any comparison with pre-Brexit numbers was flawed.
While Rees-Mogg credited Rishi Sunak with attempting to tighten migration policies, he admitted it wasn’t “anywhere near enough.”
For a man often unwavering in his Brexit defence, Rees-Mogg’s mea culpa was a surprising turn. But whether his apology lands with voters—or just adds to the pile of broken promises—remains to be seen. At the very least, it’s clear Brexit didn’t deliver the immigration control many were promised, leaving the Tories with a lot to answer for.
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