TORY MP Laura Trott left one of the panellists on Question Time with his head in his hands following her response to a question about immigration.
On last night’s Question Time, the first topic put to guests asked: “What is the right level of immigration?”
It comes as net migration levels reach a record high with figures from the Office for National Statistics showing overall migration into the UK for 2022 was 606,000.
Trott, who has served as the MP for Sevenoaks since 2019, said the Tories “had a plan to get immigration down”.
She also led an attack on Labour for their stance on immigration.
Fiona Bruce repeatedly asks Conservative MP Laura Trott, that of the work visas issued, who they would not like to come to the UK. She repeatedly ignores the question. You have to watch this to believe it. #BBCQT - Follow for more. pic.twitter.com/NThunvaIfd
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) May 25, 2023
“They went into the last election saying they wanted freedom of movement. As recently as 2020, Keir Starmer said he wanted to defend free movement.
“So migration is too high at the moment, we’ve got a plan to get it down.”
Also appearing on the show was Theo Paphitis, known for his appearances on the BBC business programme Dragons’ Den.
He was left bemused by Trott’s response, saying: “I’ve never been disappointed when a politician comes on, gets asked a question and the first thing they do rather than answer the question is attack the opposition.”
This was met with applause from the audience. “It was a question that needed an answer”, Paphitis added.
He explained that the UK has a “massive skillset issue” and that the UK would “only be competitive” by bringing in people with the right skillsets.
The conversation later turned to work visas with the latest figures showing that 1.47 million were issued in the year to March 2023, up 53% from last year.
Host Fiona Bruce asked Trott: “On the work visas, who would you not want coming here?”
Trott dodged the question with Bruce pressuring her to answer.
She did give an answer about HGV drivers and explained that it was “really important that we have more training for people within the UK”.
The host continued to press the MP, once again asking who she would like to see not to come.
Bruce said: “Of those coming now, who can you see would, because you’ve been in government 13 years now, who can you see that you would like not to come in order to get the numbers down?”
Trott continued to repeat that she had given the example of lorry drivers and that she would like “lots of jobs to be done by British people where that’s possible”, leaving Paphitis with his head in his hands.
Labour’s Peter Kyle also hit back, saying that it was only until the UK got the “basics of running the country right” that migration levels could come down.
