Mr Sunak appeared to blame Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, arguing that the number of visas being issued had fallen during his own 18 months in office.
He said it came down by 10 per cent last year and was set to fall by a further quarter this year after he launched a crackdown on people bringing dependants to the UK.
Confronted by the failure of successive Tory leaders to meet their pledges on migration, he added: “I can completely understand people’s cynicism about this.
“I’ve had this job for 18 months. Numbers were down last year, they are down considerably at the start of this year and they’ll keep coming down.”
‘Planes are booked for Rwanda’
Mr Sunak also insisted the first flight of asylum seekers would take off for Rwanda on July 24 as planned, and said that more would follow.
Asked if he was confident the scheme to deport small boat arrivals would finally be up and running this summer, he said: “Yes. What we’ve done is already started detaining people, airfields are on standby, planes are booked.”
He denied suggestions that he had called the snap election because he feared that his main border policy would fall foul to further delays.
Mr Sunak said he had decided to call the election because he felt that he had stabilised the economy sufficiently to start making promises about future tax cuts.
“An election is an important moment for our country and my priority when I got this job was to restore economic stability,” he said.
“To me, with that economic foundation established, it was the right moment to have an election.”
During the interview, the Prime Minister also pledged to keep cutting taxes for workers, admitting that the burden on working families was “too high”.
He insisted that the tax burden would come down by 1 per cent by the end of the decade, denying claims that it would continue to rise regardless.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
