Rishi Sunak is facing demands from a group of the newest Tory MPs to make dramatic cuts to immigration before the next election by clamping down on foreign workers and students coming to Britain. 

The New Conservatives group will today issue a 12-point plan that includes cutting the number of overseas staff in care homes and making it harder for post-graduate students to stay in the UK after completing their studies.

The 25-strong group, which includes the party’s deputy chairman Lee Anderson and 24 other Red Wall MPs, wants net migration cut by two-thirds from 606,000 in 2022 to around the 226,000 level it was when they were first elected in 2019.

The launch of the report – which will take place in Westminster today, will heap huge pressure on the Prime Minister, who is also under fire over illegal migration and the Rwanda deportation scheme. 

Among the ideas in the report, written by Ipswich MP Tom Hunt, are the removal of visas for tens of thousands of care workers, and raising the  skilled work visa salary threshold – designed to reduce the amount of low-paid, unskilled labour –  to £38,000.

They also recommend ending the right of graduate students to stay in the UK for up to two years after the end of their course without a job offer, and to allow fewer foreign postgrads into Britain by’excluding the poorest performing universities from eligibility criteria’.

They also say Britain should cap the number of refugees it accepts at 20,000, and cap those allowed in under future humanitarian relief schemes. 

There would also be a cap on the amount of social housing that can be allocated to non UK nationals ‘until the number of British families waiting for housing clears’.

The New Conservatives lobby group will tell Rishi Sunak (pictured at Lords yesterday) the party must ‘honour the promise’ made in the 2019 manifesto to cut net immigration to below the level at the time

The 25-strong group, which includes the party’s deputy chairman Lee Anderson and 24 other Red Wall MPs including Miriam Cates, wants net migration cut by two-thirds from 606,000 in 2022 to around the 226,000 level it was when they were first elected in 2019.

Among the ideas in the report, written by Ipswich MP Tom Hunt, are the removal of visas for tens of thousands of care workers, and raising the skilled work visa salary threshold – designed to reduce the amount of low-paid, unskilled labour – to £38,000.

In n the report’s plan is the ‘rapid introduction’ of measures in the Illegal Migration Bill, which could cut numbers by a further 35,000 by tackling the small boats crisis (File image)

The senior Tories warn that without swift action ‘the Conservative Party will further erode the trust of hundreds of thousands of voters who lent the party their vote in 2019′. 

The report says: ‘The British public voted for a strong approach to migration. They did not vote for mass migration and the social and economic harms it brings.

‘Reliance on cheap international labour drives down wages for British workers and disincentivises businesses from investing in skills training or new technology. Mass migration also contributes to the housing crisis: Over half a million more houses a year are estimated to be needed to keep up with migration trends.’

The report will be seen as warning shot at Mr Sunak, who has said only that he will bring down numbers to the level he ‘inherited’, which is around 500,000, roughly double the amount at the last election. The report says that the points-based system introduced after Brexit has been ‘too lenient’ and now risks generating ‘destabilising economic and cultural consequences’.

It points out that a ‘temporary’ relaxation of the rules for foreign care workers, introduced during Covid, remains ‘despite the abatement of the pandemic’. Closing this loophole could reduce numbers by more than 80,000, it says.

The report also calls for the minimum salary threshold for skilled worker visas to be raised to £38,000, potentially cutting numbers by 54,000 a year.

A further tightening of the rules for foreign students, including ending the right of graduates to work in the UK for two years after finishing their courses, could reduce numbers by 174,000 a year, the report says. 

It comes after Mr Sunak tightened student rules this year, including a ban on foreign students on one-year masters courses bringing in their dependants. Also in the report’s plan is the ‘rapid introduction’ of measures in the Illegal Migration Bill, which could cut numbers by a further 35,000 by tackling the small boats crisis.

Refugee numbers should be slashed and capped at 20,000 a year, it says, while hiking the immigration health surcharge from £624 a year to £2,700 would act as a disincentive for potential migrants.

The report reflects wider concerns in the Tory Party about soaring immigration levels, with one minister telling the Mail the Government has ‘taken [its] eye off the ball’ after the pandemic.