Ministers have been warned the UK could see an influx of 1.1 million foreign workers and students before the next election without action to cut numbers.
The warning from the Home Office to the government came as it prepares for net migration figures for the past year to be released next week.
They are expected to show numbers almost reaching a million for the first time, swollen by the arrival of refugees from Ukraine and Hong Kong.
But a 12-page analysis, seen by the Telegraph, suggests that work and study visas alone could pass a million people in 2024-25, which could be when the nation next heads to the ballot box.
It comes as Rishi Sunak faces concerted pressure from the Tory right over immigration.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman yesterday used an astonishing speech at a London conference to lambast the policy of a government in which she is a senior minister.
Today, backbencher John Hayes, one of her close allies, used his own address to the National Conservatism conference in Westminster to warn that mass immigration and ‘overwhelming’ population growth threatened to strain public services and change Britain’s towns and cities ‘beyond recognition.
It comes as Rishi Sunak faces concerted pressure from the Tory right over immigration.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman yesterday used an astonishing speech at a London conference to lambast the policy of a government in which she is a senior minister.
Today, backbencher John Hayes, one of her close allies, used his own address to the National Conservatism conference in Westminster to warn that mass immigration and ‘overwhelming’ population growth threatened to strain public services and change Britain’s towns and cities ‘beyond recognition.
Sir John chairs the ‘anti-woke’ Common Sense Group of Tory MPs and was at the centre of the row over leaked policy documents that saw Ms Braverman dismissed from her first stint as Home Secretary by Liz Truss.
He told the event: ‘We must reclaim our constitution from the opportunistic aims of a privileged liberal caste that has purposefully divorced itself from the nation.
‘We must be unafraid to pursue policies which enjoy popular support, which fuel the common good and elevate the people.’
He added: ‘It means an immigration system driven not by the demands of amoral big business but in tune with the will of the people, cognisant of the social and cultural pressures that mass immigration brings.
‘It means ending the overwhelming population growth which strains public services and changes beyond recognition the character of our towns and cities.’
The Prime Minister today will focus on illegal migration as he seeks changes to European human rights laws.
He will warn European leaders during a gathering in Iceland that the international system for policing human trafficking is ‘not working’.
Mr Sunak will tell the Council of Europe meeting in Reykjavik that both European communities and the world’s most vulnerable are ‘paying the price’ for the failure to prevent unlawful migration.
It comes as his Conservative administration attempts to pass into law measures designed to stop asylum seekers crossing the English Channel in small boats.
The Illegal Migration Bill aims to send asylum seekers who arrive in Britain via unauthorised routes back home or to a third country such as Rwanda, as well as cutting the daily £5.5 million cost of housing migrants who make it to the UK.
During his time in the Icelandic capital, Mr Sunak will hold talks with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over reforms to how Rule 39 works – an order that prevented the inaugural deportation flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda last year.
Speaking ahead of his trip, the Prime Minister said: ‘Every single point on each route used by people traffickers to smuggle people across our continent represents another community struggling to deal with the human cost of this barbaric enterprise.
‘It is very clear that our current international system is not working, and our communities and the world’s most vulnerable people are paying the price.
‘We need to do more to co-operate across borders and across jurisdictions to end illegal migration and stop the boats.
‘I am clear that as an active European nation with a proud history helping those in need, the UK will be at the heart of this.’
The trip comes as migration tops the political agenda, with Mrs Braverman arguing in a speech at Monday’s National Conservatism conference that Britain ‘must not lose sight of the importance of controlling legal migration’, as well as preventing people from entering via unauthorised channels.
The 2019 Conservative Party manifesto pledged overall migrant numbers would ‘come down’.
Ahead of Mr Sunak’s diplomatic efforts in Iceland on the topic of human trafficking, a Downing Street official said the challenge of unlawful migration was not only a UK issue.
They argued that the ‘scourge of illegal migration’ was placing ‘unbearable pressures on countries throughout Europe’, citing that cases had risen by 50% in the past year.
Mr Sunak and Mrs Braverman have unveiled a host of measures to tackle the flow of asylum seekers using unofficial routes to come to Britain, as part of the Illegal Migration Bill which is currently at its committee stage in the House of Lords.
The plans have come in for fierce criticism, with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby using a speech in the Lords last week to label the Bill ‘morally unacceptable and politically impractical’.
Downing Street said the Prime Minister will argue during his trip to the Council of Europe that individual measures, such as his policies designed to stop the boats, must go hand-in-hand with international co-operation to establish a global asylum framework fit for purpose.
The Council of Europe was established following the Second World War to uphold democracy and freedom throughout the continent.
Tuesday’s gathering is only the fourth time the institution, which counts 46 countries as members, has met since its founding in 1949.
Mr Sunak is due to address the summit before holding bilateral meetings with individual European leaders.
No 10 said the Conservative Party leader intends to discuss ECHR reform, including on Rule 39, when he meets court president Siofra O’Leary.
