George Osborne denies net immigration rise needed to achieve budget surplus

Chancellor attacked by Labour MPs for failing to acknowledge his target will only be met by increasing number of new jobs and finding migrants to fill them

George Osborne came under fire from MPs on Tuesday for refusing to admit that he plans to rely on a strong rise in net immigration to achieve a budget surplus at the end of the parliament.

The chancellor said the increase in jobs over the next five years would be taken mainly by Britons, despite figures from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) last week showing the government would need to almost double net immigration to hit its target of a 10bn surplus in 2020.