Robert Jenrick has warned Rishi Sunak that there are too many migrants entering the UK to integrate properly and told the Prime Minister he would face the “red-hot fury of voters at the ballot box” if he stop the small boats crisis.
The former Immigration Minister said that integrating migrants into society is “impossible” at the current levels of immigration.
Jenrick, who resigned as Immigration Minister earlier this week following the publication of the emergency Rwanda legislation, has also criticised the deportation bill, saying it would only result in some “symbolic, half-filled deportation flights”.
He also set out a blueprint for tackling legal and illegal migration and accused the Prime Minister of failing to keep his word “to do whatever it takes” to stop the boats.
WATCH NOW: Robert Jenrick responds to Alison Thewliss in the Commons
Jenrick, who resigned on Wednesday from Rishi Sunak’s cabinet, said that the plan failed due to incessant “merry-go-round” of legal challenges caused by the failure to block appeals by individual migrants.
Writing in The Telegraph, he said: “GP services and hospitals do not grow on trees. Integration is impossible if you let in over 1.2 million new people as we have done over the last two years.
“There is no better example of the failed Westminster consensus over the last 30 years than allowing historically unprecedented levels of immigration, resulting in disastrous consequences for the country and at every stage ignoring the express wishes of voters.
“Centre-right parties across Europe have a choice – begin to deliver on the mainstream concerns of ordinary people when it comes to immigration or face their red-hot fury at the ballot box.”
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Robert Jenrick resigned from the cabinet earlier this week
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Rishi Sunak described the five-point plan announced earlier this week as delivering the biggest cut ever to net migration, of 300,000 people.
However, Jenrick wanted to go further, with official caps on visas and an immediate overhaul of the two-year graduate visa route to stop universities from exploiting the lucrative foreign student market.
He said: “Too many universities have fallen into the migration, rather than education business, and are marketing low grade, short courses as a back door to a life in the UK.”
Jenrick also called publicly for the first time for Britain to quit international treaties such as the European Convention on Human Rights, saying Britain could better control its borders if it “extricated” itself from the “complex web of international frameworks”.
Robert Jenrick has warned Rishi Sunak he faces “red hot fury of voters”
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Some Conservative MPs are expected to indicate on Monday how they plan to vote at second reading of the Bill on Tuesday.
However, some may choose to abstain and wait to decide what to do on the third and final reading, which may come after Christmas.
Sunak was adamant that he would not back down and accept substantial changes to his Rwanda plan.
The Prime Minister is under pressure from backbenchers for a compromise.
