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Mr Davis said that the EU migration policy would be set according to the national interest, adding: “From time to time we’ll need more, from time to time we’ll need fewer migrants.”
Speaking on a Brexit edition of BBC TV’s Question Time programme, he said he thought that the government would eventually meet its target of cutting net migration to the “tens of thousands”, but said that the economy would come first.
“The simple truth is that we have to manage this problem,” he said. “You’ve got industry dependent on migrants, you’ve got social welfare, the National Health Service — you have to make sure they continue to work.”
Mr Davis revealed that he was chided by Theresa May after saying last December that the government was considering paying the EU for access to the single market. He said that the prime minister reminded him that “considering something is not the same as doing it”.
He also said that each government department was making “huge contingency plans” for coping with the possible fallout of Brexit talks failing, with the UK leaving the bloc without a trade deal. [...]
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