Priti Patel has put out a statement insisting she “was not happy” about the levels of immigration under the previous Conservative government, after earlier defending her party’s record.
In the earlier interview, Patel also declined to apologise for a rise in the numbers coming to the UK which took place when she was home secretary.
Speaking to The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots, Patel, now shadow foreign secretary, said it was “totally distortionary” to suggest the government in which she served had thrown open the UK’s borders.
Her party leader Kemi Badenoch appeared to distance herself from the remarks, with her spokesman saying the Conservatives would “tell the truth about the mistakes we made”.
“While the last Conservative government may have tried to control numbers, we did not deliver,” he added.
Last year, shortly after becoming leader, Badenoch held a press conference in which she said the rise in immigration had been “a collective failure of political leaders from all parties over decades… but on behalf of the Conservative party, as the new leader, it is right that I accept responsibility and say truthfully, we got this wrong.”
Figures released in 2024 showed net migration to the UK hit a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023, before falling to 728,000 the following year.
Immigration rose sharply under the points-based system for work visas, introduced after Brexit.
Challenged on the figures in an interview on Thursday, Patel – who was home secretary between 2019 and 2022 – sought to defend the Conservative’s record on immigration.
She said the points-based system had allowed the government to control the flow of immigration based on “what our economy needs and what it doesn’t need”.
Asked if she should apologise to voters who were told Brexit would lead to a reduction in immigration, Patel said: “I did not mislead them”.
“We made it quite clear it would be people from the rest of the world, people with skills” coming into the UK post-Brexit, she added.
She said many people came to the UK on health and social care visas, adding: “Are we now saying we don’t need those people in our NHS?”
However, she also said she was “not fine” with big rises in immigration and argued that the previous government should have done more to train people in the UK instead of relying on foreign labour to fill gaps in sectors such as farming.
Asked why that had not happened, she said: “That’s a very good question that should have been posed to [environment ministers] and to others.
“I was doing other national security issues – the job of the home secretary.”
Responding to the interview, Labour labelled the Conservatives “out of touch” and said Patel “seems proud of her central role in the Tory open-border experiment”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the Conservatives had a “disastrous record on immigration – and would do it again”.
A few hours after the interview was broadcast, Patel posted a message on social media in which she said: “The immigration system in our country is not fit for purpose.
“As I said in the interview, I was not happy about the high numbers while the Conservatives were in government.
“Our party is now under new leadership and it is important we learn from our mistakes and how we can do things better.”
