UK Immigration Breaks Targets: Govt Admits Inability: Setback To Cameron

The U.K. immigration target of less than 100,000 in net immigration a year has been abandoned by the government. Stating this, Home secretary Theresa May said the target has been "blown off course" and is "unlikely" to be met.

The statement of the Home secretary reflected poorly on the Cameron government that had a proclaimed "no ifs, no buts" pledge to reduce net migration to tens of thousands" by 2015. This retreat of the government has become a weapon in the hands of the opposition to attack the government on its failure in containing immigration. The home secretary's statement came just days ahead of a speech on immigration to be made by the Prime Minister, to combat the threat posed by the U.K. independence party, reported The Telegraph.

Pull of Economy

The reason why "Britain was blown off course by the rise in European migration" has been explained Ms May as "our economy is doing better than other economies in Europe." Along with the immigration issue, Mrs May also alerted about the high level of threat being faced by the U.K. from various terror groups including the ISIS. Her alert came in the wake of the U.K. government working to introduce the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, which will contain a series of measures to prevent British-born Islamic fighters. who have travelled to Iraq and Syria from trying to return to the U.K.

Setback for Cameron

Politically, the senior minister's admission that the Government is "unlikely" to hit migration target is deemed as a setback to Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been facing pressure to add more barbs to his rhetoric on immigration and spar the European Union, ahead of the general election. However, Mrs May also added that she was "positive" that Britain would be able to negotiate changes with regard to the freedom of movement rules to curb the influx of an unlimited number of migrants from other European countries.

Meanwhile, the Labour party described the open admission on the failure to check migration as an indication that the government's migration target "is in tatters". Mr. Yvette Cooper, the shadow Home secretary, said: "Theresa May has admitted that her net migration target is in tatters, yet she is not taking responsibility for it. Net migration is now more than twice her target and she is making and breaking grand promises on immigration and undermining the confidence in the entire system."

A report in Bloomberg also highlighted the past promise made by Prime Minister David Cameron, when he first took office in 2010, that he will reduce the U.K. immigration in net terms to less than 100,000 before the election of 2015. But the latest migration figure standing at 243,000 as of March 2014, speaks for itself. All political parties in the U.K., who are wary of the rise of the Euroskeptic UKIP, will be on the defensive over this. The UKIP's campaign pitch is that the European Union's principle of freedom of movement has led to the abuse of welfare rules in the U.K.