Andrew Griffith has issued a stark warning that Britain risks losing its best and brightest young people if urgent action is not taken to tackle rising costs and bureaucratic hurdles.
He said that a combination of an overburdened legal system and the increasing cost of living is driving talented under-35s to seek opportunities abroad.
Net migration has hit its lowest level in four years, according to figures released this morning.
In the 12 months to June, 204,000 more people moved to the UK than left, marking a drop of more than two-thirds compared with the previous year.
Young people were particularly affected, with 59,000 aged 16–24 and 52,000 aged 25–30 leaving the country.
The Office for National Statistics described the trend as part of a “gradual increase in levels of emigration.”
At the same time, fewer non-EU nationals arrived to work or study, adding to the slowdown in net migration.
GB News’s Ellie Costello asked: “We are in a danger here, aren’t we, of losing our highly skilled people, the best and brightest people in Britain.
Andrew Griffith blasted the ‘bloated legal system’
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GB NEWS
“How do we ensure that young people want to stay in this country and have their families here, and set up their businesses here, and work here in Britain?”
Tory MP Mr Griffith responded: “Well, we need a Government that talks more about opportunity, that projects a positive vision. I want to see a new generation of entrepreneurs.
“This is a fantastic country. Lots of people want to come here, not always the right ones, but we want to make it easier to start, grow, set up a business, run a business, have a life.
“We want to get London and our big urban areas building again. They’re barely building, it’s terrible.
Andrew Griffith spoke to GB News this morning
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GB NEWS
“And we need to reform the red tape that makes everything so blooming slow.
“In the second quarter of this year there were 901 applications for judicial review.
“Now, that’s quite a technical term, but what it means is every time in this country someone tries to do something, build something, change something, they run off to a bloated legal system. You know, it’s killing us.
“And so the next Conservative Government will reform some of these big challenges and make this a much better place to be. Our mayors need to get to grips with street crime.
“They seem to find no problem at all stopping farmers from having a peaceful protest in Whitehall on the day of the Budget, but they can’t stop people having their mobile phones snatched at hundreds of thousands of levels.
“So there’s just a great deal that we need to do as a country. But it can all be done.
“There’s other countries out there that get these things right. We need to learn from them.”