Chancellor George Osborne has told Parliament's Treasury Select Committee that foreign students could be excluded from the official net migration figures, the Telegraph reported yesterday.
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe Treasury Committee was taking evidence from the Chancellor as part of its inquiry into the Comprehensive Spending Review and Autumn Statement (you can watch the session here).
The Telegraph quoted Osborne as saying over the issue of students: "The current way the UK calculates its migration numbers they are included, but if you talk about the government's commitment on reducing migration, I would say where that strikes a public chord and has public sympathy is where we are trying to reduce permanent migration to the country."
He added: "The public's concern is about permanent migration, people permanently or for many, many years coming to live in the country. Students come and go, and I think that is a good thing for the UK."
According to the Telegraph, there has been a long-running battle in the Cabinet over whether to include students in the net migration statistics, with Home Secretary Theresa May said to be "increasingly isolated over the issue".
Osborne also indicated proposals for tougher language tests and greater savings requirements for student visa applicants were not government policy and would not take place, saying: "I'm not aware there has been any agreement in the government or any hard and fast proposals like that. We are not advancing them."
The Telegraph says that the proposals are believed to have been prepared by Theresa May.
According to the Financial Times, tensions between Osborne and May have reignited after one of the Home Secretary's former aides claimed the Government was not serious about cutting immigration.
Nick Timothy, a former adviser to May, wrote on Conservative Home that Osborne needed to keep immigration high to bolster the economy and help fund universities and said Osborne and other ministers were undermining May's attempts to cut net migration to the "tens of thousands".