Rishi Sunak addressed the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) annual conference in Birmingham on Monday afternoon, telling the assembled media and business leaders that illegal migration is his “number one priority”.
The prime minister’s speech was billed to focus on innovation, but much of that debate on Monday focused on immigration, both legal and illegal. Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 “Today” programme, Tony Danker, the director of the Confederation of British Industry said increased immigration must be used to “plug the gap” in the UK workforce as businesses struggle to fill job vacancies.
He added: “When it comes to immigration, it’s quite interesting, when you look at the OBR report on Thursday, they said the only thing that’s really moved the needle on growth is by allowing in a bit more immigration.
“The reason why it’s so important is we have literally over a million vacancies in this country, we have 600,000 people who are now long-term unwell, who aren’t coming back to the labour market any time soon.
“I recognise it’s a tough political choice for Conservative politicians”.
After concluding his speech, Sunak faced questions from the media and he was asked if he was listening to calls from businesses for looser immigration rules to boost the UK workforce.
In response, he said his “number one priority” is tackling illegal migration which he said, “undermines trust in the system”.
On legal migration, Rishi Sunak said that he wanted the UK to be able to attract and welcome the “best and brightest” people from across the world. But he said the British people must have “trust and confidence” in the immigration system.
“That means tackling illegal migration and that is what I am determined to do.”
On the innovation topic, which made up the bulk of the content of Sunak’s speech, the PM pledged to “harness innovation to drive economic growth”. He said that “innovation” is “critical” to his mission of making the UK more prosperous.
He added that driving innovation will be the “defining focus” of the Government and he wants it to “permeate every aspect of what we do”.
In the questions that followed the speech, Sunak was also keen to kill off reports that the Government could seek a Swiss-style post-Brexit deal with the European Union.
He told the conference hall in Birmingham: “On trade, let me be unequivocal about this. Under my leadership the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws.
“Now, I voted for Brexit, I believe in Brexit and I know that Brexit can deliver and is already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities for the country, migration being an immediate one where we have proper control of our borders and are able to have a conversation with the country about the type of migration that we want and need.”
Keir Starmer is due to address the CBI conference tomorrow.
