Sir Ed Davey has said legal migration is “too high” but refuses to accept his own policies would exacerbate the issue.
In an interview with Sky’s Sophy Ridge, the Liberal Democrat leader said rising immigration is “a massive broken promise” by the Conservatives and “one of the reasons why we’re seeing such disillusionment in politics”.
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However he rejected the claim that some of his own policies, such as closer ties with Europe and a new EU Youth mobility scheme, would increase immigration further.
Asked if he thinks legal migration is too high, Sir Ed said: “Yes, I do. And you’re right to say that since we left the EU, immigration has more than doubled, completely against what the Conservatives and the Brexiteers promised.”
Pressed on what he would do to fix the issue, he said his policy to raise the minimum wage of care workers would attract “people who are currently working in an Amazon warehouse or a supermarket” to the sector, reducing the reliance on foreign staff.
“They (the Conservatives) refuse to pay people properly and so they’ve issued hundreds of thousands of health care visas, so they’ve increased legal immigration,” he said.
“I’ve shown you a way where we wouldn’t need to do that.”
Other Lib Dem policies include reversing the ban on care workers bringing their families to the UK and reversing the increase in income thresholds for family visas – measures announced by the Tories to cut net migration after it reached a record high last year.
The pro-Europe leader also wants to eventually re-join the Single Market and introduce a new youth mobility deal with the EU.
However he denied he was “promising everything” without being prepared to take difficult decisions.
In defence of the youth mobility scheme, he said young people “should be able to go across Europe to play, study and work”.
“Of course, that means some young EU citizens could come here, but that would be good for our universities. It would be good for our employment.”
Asked why he won’t just say he is relaxed about high immigration if he believes in people coming here, Sir Ed said: “I think it’s just been very high levels under the Conservatives… it’s more than doubled since we left the EU and that’s a massive broken promise. It’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing such disillusionment in politics.
“I think people who previously voted Conservative feel really let down…and they want to look for other parties who can beat the Conservatives and only the Liberal Democrats can in many parts of the country.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Sir Ed rejected an IFS analysis that said his manifesto would mean up to £20bn of cuts every year in unprotected departments.
He said the think tank is “right to say that the Conservatives have trashed our economy” but he hasn’t seen their analysis of his own party’s pledges.
“We are the only party putting forward a significant tax and spend programme,” he insisted.
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Sir Ed also opened up on why he has decided to speak so candidly about his experience caring for his late mother, who died when he was 15, and now his teenage son John, who is disabled.
This has been a central message of his election campaign, which has otherwise been defined by wacky election stunts to get through to voters.
Sir Ed said that he and his wife Emily felt he had a “duty” to talk about it once he become leader “because it’s not about us”.
“It’s about millions of families out there who are caring for their loved ones. Our life experience will chime with lots of other people and because I think care is a critical issue that should be in this election,” he said.