The MP for Newark Robert Jenrick has caused a stir after a video posted on social media went viral.
Mr Jenrick said he wanted to use the video — which has been being viewed over 1.2m times since it was posted on X, formerly Twitter — to tell the “truth that needs to be told” about immigration.
The post has sparked some backlash and debate from members of the public and rivals who criticise the rhetoric and language used by the MP.
In the video the former Immigration Minister is joined by fellow Conservative MP Neil O'Brien, the MP for Market Harborough in Leicestershire, and begins with the pair asking the question “if we lived in a country where our immigration system had failed for 30 years, what would it look like?”
Intercut with news clips, the Tory MPs go on to make a series of statements, claiming that what they described as a failing immigration system would mean public services would be strained, housing costs would spiral as demands outweighed supply, and wages would be suppressed by “an influx of cheap labour”.
They also claim that in the 25 years leading to 1997 net migration was 68,000, but in the 25 year after up to 2022 it was 5.9 million — adding that the UK would supposedly need to build a city the size of Cardiff every year to meet immigration levels.
The MPs made the video after publishing a report outlining the issue as well as making 36 recommendations they believe would fix it.
Mr Jenrick said on X: “I resigned from government because I refused to be another politician who broke their promise to reduce immigration.
“Three decades of mass migration have utterly failed the British public.
“We must end this disastrous experiment for good. We should return to the historical norm of net migration in the 10,000s.
“The only way to guarantee the promise to reduce net migration will be kept is to introduce a cap which would serve as a democratic lock on numbers.”
You can view the video here:
Some points made by the MPs in the video have been criticised, such as the claims that the majority of immigrants do not add to economic growth; either working low-wage, low-skilled jobs or not at all, and take more out of the economy than they contribute.
Do you agree with Robert Jenrick’s message on this issue? Let us know your thoughts.
