Chris Bryant, Shadow Immigration Minister,commenting after Theresa May’s appearance on the Andrew Marr programme today, said:

“Theresa May is still failing on immigration and this Bill is not going to address some of the biggest problems.

"The number of foreign criminals deported has dropped by over 13% since the election, border checks have been cut with only half as many people stopped and illegal immigration has got worse.

"Yet there seems to be nothing in the promised Bill to tackle problems at border control, deal with long delays in getting electronic checks in place, or the UKBA bureaucratic failings that have prevented foreign criminals being deported.

"Nor are they tackling exploitation in the labour market which raises greatest public concern. For example the Bill is an opportunity to tackle problems such as enforcement of the minimum wage which would respond to concerns about the impact of EU migration.

"It is right to tackle appeal delays and have proper checks for local services. But measures need to be workable and we will need to look at the detail which the Home Secretary could not provide today. There are some checks in place already so it is not yet clear what the Government is proposing.

"Theresa May has a history of promising big and pretending all is well, but the Government is continuing to fail on immigration policy. This government is still failing on immigration even on its own measures, with net migration now going up again rather than being in the tens of thousands as the Prime Minister promised.”