Boris Johnson And Jeremy Hunt Not Trusted On Immigration, Reveals Report

Next PM told to ditch "headline-chasing promises".
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The British public do not trust Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt to handle immigration, figures published on Monday suggest.

An ICM poll for the British Future think-tank showed Johnson was distrusted by 49% of the public on immigration and trusted by 22%, a net score of minus-27.

Fewer say they distrust Hunt on immigration (41%) but only 13% say they trust him on the issue - a net score of minus-28.

But the problem is one both Tory leadership candidates inherited from Theresa May.

Just 18% of the public – and only a quarter (25%) of 2017 Conservative voters – think May did a good job of managing immigration as prime minister and home secretary.

And only 13% of the public agrees that “The government has managed immigration into the UK competently and fairly.”

The poll was conducted for British Future’s “Immigration after May – what should the new prime minister change?” report published today.

Distrust in politicians is widespread, however, with no politician of any party securing a positive rating. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s trust rating on immigration is minus-37.

Sunder Katwala, the think-tank’s director and co-author of the report, said whoever took over from May they would start their term in office with a “major trust deficit on immigration”.

“People are fed up with the unkept promises and lack of accountability epitomised by the net migration target,” he said.

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“The new prime minister must make a clean break and start to rebuild public confidence on immigration, setting out a new vision for immigration after Brexit.

“There is public consensus across our political and referendum tribes for a pragmatic approach that combines control with openness to the immigration that our economy needs.”

May stuck firmly to a pledge to reduce immigration to below 100,000. Johnson and Hunt have both indicated they would scrap the target - which the Conservative government has never managed to hit.

James Kirkup, director of the Social Market Foundation think tank and contributor to a new report on immigration published on Monday, said the next prime minister should “push to help immigrants become British citizens”.

He added: “Anyone who leads Britain needs to have an honest conversation about immigration, its challenges and its benefits.

“That means an end to simple, headline-chasing promises and a new focus on the needs of Britain’s employers, regions and communities.”

The report proposes replacing the net migration target with a three-year migration plan, which could include separate targets for different flows of migration, and which is reviewed each year.

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