High levels of immigration to the UK make it hard to build a cohesive society, senior Conservatives are warning.
David Cameron said without controlling immigration it was “difficult” to create a “cohesive, integrated society”.
Theresa May will use her speech at the Conservative Party conference to say the UK needs to have a limit.
Net migration into the UK currently stands at a record high.
Mr Cameron said he was “incredibly proud” the UK had built one of the “most successful multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracies anywhere in the world”.
But he said that for an “integrated, successful society you have to make sure there are enough school places and that hospitals aren’t overcrowded”.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Theresa May will say later: “There are millions of people in poorer countries who would love to live in Britain, and there is a limit to the amount of immigration any country can and should take.”
She will also warn of the pressure immigration places on infrastructure and public services.
“It’s difficult for schools and hospitals and core infrastructure like housing and transport to cope. And we know that for people in low-paid jobs, wages are forced down even further while some people are forced out of work altogether,” she is expected to say.
Net migration – the difference between the number of people entering the country and those leaving – rose by 50% to 318,000 last year, with sharp increases from inside and outside the EU.
A total of 641,000 people moved to the UK in 2014, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This led Mr Cameron to say he would not “cave in” and abandon his target of reducing net migration below 100,000.
