Rishi Sunak highlighted the benefits of immigration to the UK's economy in his speech at the Government's Global Investment Summit.
Speaking to investors at Hampton Court Palace, the Prime Minster said: "We don't have a monopoly on talent in this country. And we recognise that nearly half of our most innovative companies have an immigrant founder.
"So if you're an innovator or an entrepreneur, you should know that we have the most competitive visa regime for high skills.
"Our new high potential individual visa means that if you are a young person, who's graduated from a top-50 global university, you can just come here with your family and stay here for two years," Sunak said, adding that "nothing like that exists anywhere else in the world."
The Prime Minister hailed £29.5 billion of new investment into the UK as he convened a summit with more than 200 leading CEOs, but remained dogged by questions about the migration statistics as well as last week’s Autumn Statement.
But speaking to broadcasters earlier, Sunak adopted a tougher stance on immigration.
“I'm very clear that the levels of net migration are too high. They need to come down to more sustainable levels,” Mr Sunak told broadcasters after new data showed 745,000 more people moved to the UK than left in the year to December 2022 - three times higher than before Brexit.
“It’s encouraging that the Office for National Statistics last week did say that the numbers are already slowing. I've already taken action to tighten the number of dependants that students can bring when they come and study here,” he said.
The PM remained under pressure after new allegations by allies of ousted home secretary Suella Braverman that he had failed to act on the hot-button issue.
No10 denies any written deal with Ms Braverman, but came under further pressure after Home Secretary James Cleverly appeared to play down the importance of the Government’s plan to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda.
In his latest Daily Mail column on Friday, Boris Johnson added his voice to demands from Ms Braverman's allies for more action. The current minimum salary for most migrant workers of £26,000 was “way too low” and should be raised to at least £40,000, the former PM said.
