Home Affairs committee chairwoman Yvette Cooper pressed Home Secretary Amber Rudd about whether she still aimed to hit the target of cutting net migration to the UK to below 100,000 a year.

Ms Rudd declined to answer the question directly, saying that she remained committed to reducing the net migration figure, which was 244,000 in the year to September 2017.

"There are many ways of reducing immigration, and there are going to be more ways of doing it once we leave the European Union," she said, adding that the target was "challenging".