James Cleverly has become the second Tory leadership candidate to decline to apologise for record legal migration, saying he would not be the “punchbag” for the last Government. It comes after Cleverly’s rival Dame Priti Patel also told the podcast that the Conservatives do not have to apologise for allowing millions of migrants to move to the UK in the party’s final years in power. The Conservatives have been widely criticised for failing to cut net migration despite repeated manifesto pledges at the 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections. However Cleverly, who was Home Secretary from No…
