Mass migration is "wrecking British culture" and must be reversed, Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has said.

Mr Jenrick issued the dire warning in a wide-ranging interview with The Spectator - in which he attacked the Home Office, the ECHR, the "Boriswave" migration surge and both illegal and legal immigration.

"My view is that mass uncontrolled migration has and is wrecking British culture and identity," he told the magazine.

And in a challenge to Nigel Farage's recently-announced plans for mass deportations, Mr Jenrick took aim at "eye-wateringly harmful" levels of legal migration too.

"Damaging though illegal migration is, legal migration is even more harmful to the country because of the sheer eye-watering numbers of people who have been coming across in recent years perfectly legally," he said.

"It's putting immense pressure on public services."

Mass migration is 'wrecking British culture', Robert Jenrick said

The Shadow Justice Secretary has now called for Britain to take some "breathing space" and turn into a net emigration country.

For the last year on record, net migration to Britain stood at 431,000 - a sizeable decline from 2022 and 2023's peak.

At the time, the Prime Minister had warned that high net migration had caused "incalculable" damage to British society - but Mr Jenrick has explicitly called for a decade of mass deportations to solve the crisis.

"The age of being open to the world and his wife, who are low-wage, low-skilled individuals, and their dependents, has to come to an end," he warned.

"Reversing recent low-skilled migration will likely mean a sustained period of net emigration. I would support that."

Probed on whether this would take a decade, he said: "It could be, yes."

The Shadow Justice Secretary has now called for Britain to take some 'breathing space' and turn into a net emigration country

His words came just days after Reform UK's own policy plans were finally brought to light.

In them, leader Nigel Farage unveiled a multi-stage scheme to ensure the "safety and security of this country and its people".

Mr Jenrick said there was "a lot to welcome" in Reform's plans.

"It's obviously going to be very important that we deport all the illegal migrants in the country and the next Government has to make that their priority," he said.

But the Shadow Justice Secretary hinted at moves to outflank Mr Farage on migration, pointing out a potential loophole in Reform's plan.

Reform's pledge to deport undocumented males, rather than women and children, would lead to exploitation, Mr Jenrick said.

"The people-smuggling gangs would exploit women and girls and it would encourage even more young men to pose as 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds."

Mr Jenrick's words came just days after Reform UK's own policy plans were finally brought to light

However, Mr Jenrick made no mention of the Tories' own deportations Bill.

Instead, he turned his fire on his former bosses during his time in the Home Office - with one former minister telling The i Paper that he had been "radicalised" in the department.

"At the Home Office I walked into a total bin fire," Mr Jenrick fumed. "I think the points-based system that was created by the ministers at the time was the worst public policy mistake in my lifetime."

Boris Johnson and then-Home Secretary Priti Patel's New Plan for Immigration saw millions come to the UK in what has been dubbed the "Boriswave".