Suella Braverman will pile pressure on Rishi Sunak on immigration today by insisting the Tories must keep their 2019 election promise to reduce the numbers of people coming into the UK.
The home secretary will tell a Conservative conference that Britain must train up its own workers rather than relying on importing foreign labour.
And she will insist it is “not racist for anyone, ethnic minority or otherwise, to want to control our borders”.
Her comments come ahead of official figures which are expected to show that net immigration - the difference between the numbers leaving and entering the country - is approaching one million.
That is well above the government’s target of reducing the figure to the tens of thousands.
Braverman will say: “I voted and campaigned for Brexit because I wanted Britain to control migration. So that we all have a say on what works for our country.
“High-skilled workers support economic growth. Fact. But we need to get overall immigration numbers down. And we mustn’t forget how to do things for ourselves.
“There is no good reason why we can’t train up enough HGV drivers, butchers or fruit pickers. Brexit enables us to build a high-skilled, high wage economy that is less dependent on low-skilled foreign labour.
“That was our 2019 manifesto pledge and what we must deliver.
“It’s not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration is unsustainable in terms of housing supply, service and community relations.
“Nor is it bigoted to say that too many people come here illegally and claim asylum, and we have insufficient accommodation for them.
“I’m not embarrassed to say that I love Britain. No true Conservative is. It’s not racist for anyone, ethnic minority or otherwise, to want to control our borders.”
The home secretary will be speaking at the National Conservatism conference, in which leading figures in the party will set out their visions for the future.
Other speakers include Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Tory deputy chairman, Lee Anderson.
The event has been seen as a challenge to Sunak, who is coming under mounting pressure to turn around the Tories’ fortunes ahead of the next general election.