Nigel Farage accused the Government of "ignoring the will of the people" after net migration hit a new record high. 

The former leader of the Brexit Party claimed net migration could have been limited to 50,000 a year if the Tories had taken the right approach after the UK left the European Union. 

He also predicted the failure to crackdown on the number of people coming to the UK post-Brexit would prompt "another insurgency in British politics" because the "gap between Westminster and where people are is even bigger than it was 10 years ago".

Official data published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics showed net migration of 606,000 for last year, nearly three times the pre-Brexit average of between 200,000 and 250,000.

Told that before the EU referendum he had suggested net migration could be brought down to 50,000, Mr Farage told Sky News: "Yes, of course. Of course we can. We could have got it down to 50,000. If they put me in charge of it we would have got to 50,000 a year, no question about it, but they didn’t. 

"The problem we have got now is... I said 10 years ago, I wanted to cause an earthquake in British politics. Well, we got the earthquake, we are still suffering the aftershocks of it, we are suffering the aftershocks… because Parliament and the Government have ignored the will of the people. 

"They have ignored what was said in that Brexit referendum and so now a bigger question emerges as to how we are going to change politics in this country."

Rishi Sunak said yesterday that the numbers were "just too high" and he remained committed to bringing them down. He denied that net migration was out of control. 

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