She has also proposed a ban on one-year masters students bringing dependants. Mrs Braverman has been pushing to axe the visa and only allow graduates to stay for six months to find work, as the MAC originally proposed in 2018. Writing in The Telegraph, James Frayne, an electoral strategist at Public First, warned the Tories that this week's migration figures would have an “immediate, direct impact on the polls”. It comes as the Government is braced for net migration to hit a record high of around 700,000 when figures are published in the next week. The Telegraph can also disclose that the Treasury has warned that proposals by Mrs Braverman to slash the number of foreign workers coming to the UK would fuel inflation. However, a large number of dependants could increase the burden on taxpayers, he said - for example, through school costs. Prof Bell said fewer overseas students would mean a reduction in GDP. “An offer to do anything you want for two years seems unnecessary to us, so personally I’ve never been massively in favour of the graduate route,” he said. Prof Bell said the MAC had found the students who stayed after graduating were often in low-skilled, low-earning jobs of little benefit to the economy. Masters students can bring in spouses and children, then stay with them on a graduate visa. Prof Bell, a professor of economics at King’s Business School at King’s College London, said the graduate visa had allowed foreign students “pretty much unrestricted rights to work” for two years for the price of a one-year masters degree. It is understood Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, wants to restrict such visas but has faced opposition from No 10, the Treasury and the Department for Education. The combination of the two-year visa and “generous” rules on bringing in dependants has contributed to the increase in net migration, despite a Tory manifesto pledge to reduce it.

The new tsar