I was pleased with aspects of this week’s autumn statement, particularly the decision to cut National Insurance from 12% to 10%, this will be a real boost to most people’s pay packets. I was also pleased to see the pension triple lock protected again and the support for the self-employed. The autumn statement and the latest inflation figures certainly indicate that, finally, the economy may be beginning to head in the right direction. It may also indicate that we’re not too far off some of the pressures around cost of living really starting to ease.

However, something that I am a lot less happy with this week are the latest net migration figures. These figures are separate to illegal migration, they are the net “legal” migration number. The latest figures point to this running at 672,000 this year. To put this into perspective, this is almost five times the population of Ipswich being added to the country every year. The numbers for last year have also been revised upwards. Only a few months ago I published a paper outlining a plan for net migration to be cut to the kind of level we promised in the 2019 manifesto. It is critical that over the next few days the Government makes clear they get the gravity of the situation we face. They must commit to taking radical action to cutting net migration to levels the majority of the country would be comfortable with.

The reality is that all polling makes clear that the majority of the population think that present levels of immigration are far too high. Whenever they have been given an opportunity, at either the 2016 EU referendum or the 2019 General Election, a preference has been expressed for significant reductions in immigration. Yet here we are.

The Labour Party introduced a new era of mass migration, and we should have done far more to reverse it. There is no democratic mandate for having immigration at its current levels. Over the coming weeks I will, again, be adding my call for a new approach to net migration.

As I’ve said before, we need to view the issue in the round. It is not just about headline impact on GDP in the short term. We also need to properly assess the impact of having net migration at 672,000 per year on public services, housing, social cohesion, the environment and GDP per capita. There should be one key question that we get a definitive answer to, is having net migration at this unprecedented level good for the quality of life of British citizens, yes or no? My strong view is that the negatives outweigh the positives with net migration at these levels.

Of course, our country has always been a country of immigrants. We have always welcomed people from all over the world many of whom have made very valuable contributions. However, these present levels are not sustainable. The numbers are simply too great and the questions around integration and social cohesion will only grow more and more pressing.

I’m a Conservative MP and will always believe that a Conservative Government is superior to a Labour one. I am convinced that under a Labour Government these issues would be far worse. However, I also seek to be an independently minded MP and will always speak what I feel to be the truth on any issue. I will not be holding back in expressing my concerns at the present levels of net legal migration over the coming weeks. The Government needs to do far more on it to win back people’s trust.

There is a very real risk that if mainstream parties don’t heed concerns on immigration, it will only fuel the extremes. We are seeing many examples of this all over the world right now and this is something we should do everything to avoid.

Tom Hunt is MP for Ipswich