The Government’s migration tsar has backed plans to crack down on foreign graduate visas amid a Cabinet row over immigration.

The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are said to be resisting calls to scale back the right of foreign students to stay for two years after they graduate, despite concern that the scheme is open to abuse.

In a Telegraph interview, Prof Brian Bell, the chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), said it warned the Government five years ago - when the two-year visa was introduced - that it could offer graduates a backdoor route to remain in the UK in low-skilled work.

It helped fuel a 10-fold increase in foreign students bringing dependants to the UK. Since 2018, the number of postgraduate student dependents has risen from 16,000 to 135,000. There are also 73,000 students on graduate visas.