article_snippet: the figures believe that, in the wake of this shuddering failure, it is easier to make the case for scrapping the target altogether.
article_snippet: Yesterday, ex-Cabinet minister Kenneth Clarke said: ‘We will have to drop the target.
article_snippet: I’m afraid that the target has proved to be a mistake.
article_snippet: ‘If you set yourself unrealistic targets, you are setting yourself up to fail and, in the long term, turn the whole thing into a bigger issue by fuelling the perception that the Government can’t get a grip.
article_snippet: But Mrs May is understood to believe that giving up on the target would be a huge error, not least because immigration still ranks in the top two concerns of voters.
article_snippet: ‘The Prime Minister has said that we will come back and set out what you can measure we on –