UK has tried and failed to reduce immigration to 'tens of thousands', says home secretary

The government has failed to reduce net migration down to the targeted tens of thousands despite best efforts, according to Home Secretary Theresa May.

May told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that parliament has tried and failed to bring the number down because of its inability to restrict EU migration.

She said: “We've been changing every single route; so we see reductions in family visas, we see reductions in student visas, we've been rooting out abuse - there are 750 colleges now that can't bring overseas students in - but it is, of course, unlikely that we're going to reach the tens of thousands by the end of the Parliament.

"Why is that? It's because we've seen increasing numbers of people coming from across Europe, partly because our economy is doing better than other economies in Europe, and we've been doing what we can in relation to EU migration, but there is of course more to be done."

UK Prime Minister David Cameron set the immigration target back in 2011, where he claimed the numbers would be reduced "no ifs, no buts".

However, two weeks ago on BBC Radio 4, May argued that the Prime Minister's words were merely "a comment" or an "aim", not a "promise".

The most recent immigration statistics should be released later this week.