ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has revealed that the Conservatives have effectively abandoned their target to bring net migration below 100,000 post-Brexit.

He made the admission on the BBC's Today programme ahead of the Government's White Paper on Britain’s post-Brexit immigration system being published later today.

But the Cabinet minister denied the Government was abandoning commitments in the party’s general election manifesto and said that there will still be a system to bring net migration down to more sustainable levels.

Bringing net migration below 100,000 was a key pledge in the party's 2017 General Election manifesto.

Speaking about reducing annual net migration target, Mr Javid said: “There is no specific target. It will be a system that will bring net migration down to more sustainable levels.

“If you look at the current level of migration, the latest stats show 273,000. Most people agree that is very high, certainly by historical standards.

"In the last two decades it has been in the hundreds of thousands. If you go back further than that it was much lower.

"What we want to do is bring it to a level where it is sustainable, in the sense that it meets first our economic need and at the same time, though, it is not too high a burden on our communities or on our infrastructure."

Mr Javid had previously pledged to reduce the annual net migration figure to below 100,000, but refused to repeat the commitment on the Radio 4 show.

Mr Javid added the Government would also be consulting further about the future of minimum salary requirements for high-skilled workers applying to the UK.

He said: “We are not setting the exact threshold today. There will be a threshold. The MAC (Migration Advisory Committee) suggested it should be £30,000.

"That is their view and it is based on their evidence and it is very important for us to listen to that. It is equally important to listen to business to find the right threshold.

"We will consult further on whether it is £30,000 or thereabouts. What is important is that it is the principle that the MAC set out, which is absolutely right, where we want to focus on high skills."

The body representing the NHS trusts has warned the £30,000 minimum salary could affect the NHS's ability to recruit the staff it needs.

NHS Providers deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery said they were "deeply concerned" about the proposals in the Government's immigration White Paper.

"We are deeply concerned about what is going to happen. High skills does not equal high pay," she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"You have got starting salaries for nurses at £23,000 - also for paramedics, midwives. Junior doctors starting salaries at £27,000, healthcare assistants at £17,000, all coming in way below that £30,000 cap.

"It is not just health workers, it is social care as well. We have to remember where the skills lay. They lay in those staff under £30,000."

Labour MP Diane Abbott hit out at Mr Javid, tweeting: "Good that Sajid Javid is APPARENTLY dumping the unachievable immigration target."