Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to the Home Secretary’s comments this morning, said:

“David Cameron promised ‘no ifs, no buts’, his Government would get net migration down to the 'tens of thousands’. He said it was 'a promise to the British people’, part of the contract he put on leaflets to voters across the country.

“But today, the Home Secretary described the net migration target as a 'comment’, rather than a promise.

“Did she think we’d just forget what the Prime Minister had said? Does she think voters won’t remember the Tory leaflets containing this immigration pledge pushed through their letterboxes?

“It’s time Theresa May stopped ducking and diving and took some responsibility for the fact that her net migration target is in tatters, so we can start having a serious conversation about the future of our immigration system and the reforms that are needed.”​