FactCheck: Fewer immigrants under Tories?

Last Modified: 02 Oct 2007
By: Channel 4 News

Would a Conservative government cut the number of immigrants coming into Britain?

The claim

Speaking to Channel 4 News yesterday, Michael Gove, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, responded: "No."

Today at the Conservative conference, David Davis, Shadow Home Secretary, said: "The government last week admitted that net immigration is running at two-hundred thousand every year.

"Let me make it clear under a Conservative government that figure will be substantially lower."

The background

The Tories have identified immigration as a key policy battleground ahead of the next general election - whenever it may be.

Speaking at Blackpool today, Davis promised the party faithful that Labour's alleged open-door policy would be scrapped under Tory rule.

But it appears not all members of the shadow cabinet are singing from the same hymn sheet.

The analysis

In this instance the substance of the claims does not lend itself to empirical research.

But it would be remiss of FactCheck not to highlight such a contradiction; especially when the two claims happened so close together - one on our programme - and involve a key area of policy.

Gove and Davis had clearly not checked each other's notes, with one saying immigration levels would not be affected by a Conservative government, and one promising that they will...

Verdict

Clearly one of the claims is wrong, David Cameron will just be hoping the Conservatives get the chance to prove it.

FactCheck rating: 5

How ratings work

Every time a FactCheck article is published we'll give it a rating from zero to five.

The lower end of the scale indicates that the claim in question largerly checks out, while the upper end of the scale suggests misrepresentation, exaggeration, a massaging of statistics and/or language.

In the unlikely event that we award a 5 out of 5, our factcheckers have concluded that the claim under examination has absolutely no basis in fact.

Source

David Davis 2007 conference speech

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