Cameron Denies Tories Are Tipping Towards UKIP

David Cameron has denied the Conservative party has tipped towards UKIP after a controversial speech on immigration by the Home Secretary.

The Prime Minister said the Tories were taking the "common ground" and delivering the controlled immigration the "British people" wanted.

In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cameron defended Theresa May's tough stand on immigration, despite claims from business leaders that she was "pandering to anti-immigration sentiment" .

Mrs May told the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester that mass immigration in the last decade had harmed Britain.

Her controversial remarks included a vow to introduce tougher controls for asylum seekers and clamp down on university students overstaying their welcome.

Institute of Directors (IoD) director general Simon Walker said: "We are astonished by the irresponsible rhetoric and pandering to anti-immigration sentiment from the Home Secretary.

"It is yet another example of the Home Secretary turning away the world's best and brightest, putting internal party politics ahead of the country, and helping our competitor economies instead of our own."

But Mr Cameron defended Mrs May, saying: "What I talk about is the common ground.

"The British people want to see, not an end to immigration, they want to see controlled immigration, and that's actually a message I received from many ethnic minority communities in Britain as well who are very passionate about this subject."

He added: "If you have unlimited migration and the numbers get out of control then it is more difficult to bring people to Britain, make sure they have the schools and the homes and the hospital beds and the other services that are needed, and that is why we have always believed in controlled immigration and better integration."

Despite the Prime Minister's pledge to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands, the figures are at a record high.

Mr Cameron admitted immigration was "too high".

He said: "The truth is that we have done well when it comes to migration from outside the EU and we have cracked down on things like bogus colleges...

"Because we have created more jobs than the rest of the EU put together we have seen a large amount of migration from inside the EU.

"Now the way to answer that is to reform our welfare system so you cannot come here and access benefits immediately, but secondly it is to educate and train and make sure there are apprenticeships for our own people."

Following Mrs May's speech, the UKIP leader Nigel Farage tweeted: "Nice to see Theresa May repeating so much of what I have said about uncontrolled migration. Let's hope she means it."