The Migration Advisory Committee are saying to the Government they've conducted a long review and they find no evidence of widespread abuse.
They do say if there was a big reduction in numbers, some of our universities might just collapse. Let me just run through with you some of the numbers, they are staggering.
In 2023, there were 460,000 sponsored study visas. 460,000 students came to us in that year.
What is even more staggering is that we allowed 144,000 dependents to come. Students come with their dependents. Yes, I know it seems absolutely batty, but that's what we allowed them to do.
And that is something like the number of student visas, 70 per cent higher than in 2019, 70 per cent higher under this Government. They argue that it's a good thing.
They argue that it's good for the economy. And where are they coming from? China. India. Nigeria.
But here's the bit that really, really is annoying, I think. The proportion of students granted leave to remain, which means they can then stay for the rest of their lives if they want to tripled between 2019 and 2023 from 18 per cent to 56 per cent.
You begin to understand why this and other areas are legal, forget the boats for a minute, legal net migration in this country has simply exploded. Now they have changed the rules.
They have said that for this year, no foreign students are allowed to bring dependants with them. And they think because of that, we will get a much, much smaller net migration figure.
But even if we do, why the hell were they allowing this in the first place? Seems to me that many of us, not all, but many of our universities, have become absolutely drunk on foreign money, be it grants from China or foreign students.
And I wonder whether this is all to the benefit of British students going on to further education.
So I think we should slash the numbers. Also, we should be careful about who we allow in, and just coming as a student should not give you automatic leave to remain.
That's my political position on all of it.
