Legal migration is too high, says Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak says legal migration to the UK is "too high" but has refused to put a precise figure on acceptable levels of people coming to the UK.

The prime minister told the BBC he was "considering a range of options" to bring down legal migration.

He has been facing pressure to deliver on a 2019 Conservative manifesto commitment to bring down levels of net migration.

New figures on net migration to the UK are expected in the coming weeks.

In an interview conducted with the BBC's Chris Mason at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Mr Sunak refused to be drawn on the specifics of the government's plan on legal migration.

Asked if he would stop some international students bringing dependents with them when they come to study in the UK, Mr Sunak said he wouldn't "speculate".

"What I would say is we're considering a range of options to help tackle numbers of legal migration and to bring those numbers down - and we'll talk more about that in the future," he said.

In the year to June 2022, numbers exceeded 500,000, and new figures out in the coming weeks could be as high as one million.

"The numbers are too high, and we want to bring them down," Mr Sunak said, adding that figures were higher in 2022 due to Ukrainian refugees coming to the UK, something he said the country should be "proud of".

Pushed on what an "acceptable level" would be in terms of legal migration numbers, Mr Sunak said it would "depend on how the economy's doing at any particular time and the circumstances we're facing".

"So I don't want to put a precise number on it. What I can tell you is the numbers are high and we do want to bring them down," he said, insisting that tackling illegal migration was his priority.

The Conservatives pledged to bring down overall numbers of migrants coming to the UK in their 2019 manifesto, at which time migration levels were at 226,000.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been calling for lower immigration, and suggested more British people should be trained to do jobs commonly done by overseas workers, such as lorry driving and fruit picking.

But Mr Sunak has taken a less hard-line approach, and has said more seasonal fruit pickers will be allowed to come to the UK if required.

Earlier this week, the prime minister used his visit to a Council of Europe meeting in Iceland to call for greater cooperation between the UK and EU on illegal migration.

Following the summit, Downing Street said the UK and the EU had agreed to work together to tackle cross-border crime and people smuggling.