If the recent rhetoric on migration numbers has brought you down, it may well be in your interest to listen to the few first minutes of last week’s meeting of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rt Hon Phillip Hammond appearance before the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, to respond to questions on his priorities as Chancellor.
Hammond was immediately asked whether he stood by a leaked letter presented by Channel 4 news on migration and student migration, in which he warned Cameron’s government that ‘Britain’s role as a world class destination for international students is a highly significant element…’.
Last week, the Committee asked Hammond whether he was ‘winning the arguments’ that ‘students should be excluded from the total’. After Hammond’s refusal to respond to the question directly, other than saying that it is essential to look at how we reduce migration while simultaneously protecting the economy and that we should see what the public feel should be included within the definition of migration, the Committee interjected:
‘…it wouldn’t surprise me that the overwhelming majority of this committee agrees with you on this issue…we’ve got everybody on side here backing you…’
Downing Street’s response to media coverage of the meeting was that its ‘position on who is included in the figures has not changed, and we are categorically not reviewing whether or not students are included.’