- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Home secretary Suella Braverman feels there is “no good reason” why the UK cannot train its own army of lorry drivers and fruit pickers in a bid to curb immigration.
The 43-year-old minister of Indian origin was also set to say in a speech later at a conference organised by a US-based right-wing campaign group in London on Monday (15) that it is “not racist” to want to control the borders, the BBC reported.
Earlier, Braverman, who has in the past been criticised from various quarters over her hardline takes on immigration, said her “ultimate inspiration” is to bring down net migration — the difference between those entering and leaving the UK — to below 10,000. It is expected to reach a record 700,000 this year, the report added.
“There is no good reason why we can’t train up enough HGV drivers, butchers or fruit pickers,” she was set to say, according to the BBC.
She would also say that we must not “forget how to do things for ourselves”.
“It’s not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration is unsustainable in terms of housing supply, service and community relations,” she was expected to say in her speech.
According to the BBC report, Braverman’s speech is being considered by some as a warning shot to prime minister Rishi Sunak to emphasise more on reducing immigration, although as per Downing Street, the home secretary’s words were clarified with them.
Some senior leaders of the Conservative Party are of the opinion that more immigration is required in the short term to bolster economic growth.
Nigel Huddleston, minister of state for international trade, told Times Radio that “every now and again we also need more people to come into the country” but the “key thing” was to have control.
“In the long term, we need immigration to come down because that’s what has been causing some challenges in local areas for a long period of time,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC.
However, the fact that the net migration figure for the UK for 2022, which is estimated to be at least 700,000, according to an analysis by the centre-right think tank Centre for Policy Studies, gave the opposition Labour an opportunity to target the government.
Sir Keir Starmer said, for instance, that Braverman’s speech was “all talk”.
“She is the home secretary. They’ve been in power for 13 years,” he told LBC Radio. “If you’re in the job, it’s your job to do it.”
Braverman’s remarks on immigration at the National Conservatism Conference will also come days after Sunak’s party lost almost 1,000 councillors at local elections.
