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Former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who defected to the Reform Party, said she would "stand by my record at all times".

Senior Tories have reacted with fury to the Reform Party's plan for a national migration inquiry, highlighting Ms Braverman and Robert Jenrick's stint at the Home Office.

But the former interior minister said: "This is exactly what we need and I will be happy to give evidence." When I arrived at the Home Office in September 2022, the number of work and study visas issued in the previous year already exceeded one million.

"The Boriswave flooded the country.

"It was a disaster. I came into government with a clear plan to reduce net migration.

"If we acted quickly we could get the numbers down before the general election, I hoped.

"Yet I have been repeatedly blocked by Tory prime ministers and Tory cabinet members. No minister can act unilaterally - cabinet approval is required and Tory Wets have continued to resist.

"I continued to work to persuade, to push, to lobby, to get changes. I managed to get the first round of changes (on dependent students) in May 2023.

"These were the very first changes that marked the beginning of the overthrow of Boriswave.

"Not really, but it's a start. I haven't given up. I continued to push for a more comprehensive package of changes (raising the salary threshold, lowering the caps, etc.), but was constantly blocked by the Chancellor, the Departments of Health, Education, Business and Agriculture, as well as the Prime Minister.

"It became one of my biggest disagreements with the Prime Minister, and one of the reasons he fired me. The Prime Minister eventually introduced some of the changes I had proposed after I left. But it was too little, too late.