Is May dropping the ‘Leave’ campaign’s immigration policy?

‘Brexit means Brexit’, Theresa May has repeatedly reassured us. But it seems Brexit might not mean an introduction of a ‘points-based’ immigration policy which Vote Leave – and a number of cabinet ministers, including Boris Johnson – had called for during the referendum campaign. The Prime Minister said the system was no ‘silver bullet’ and planned to look ‘across the board’ for answers instead. As is becoming clearer – and as James Forsyth pointed out after May’s Marr interview yesterday – the Prime Minister has a style in front of journalists which involves giving little away. So offering up the small titbit that a points system might not feature in May’s plans for Brexit is something of a big reveal for the Prime Minister (and the reason why it manages to boot Keith Vaz off a number of papers this morning). But what does this tell us?

The first thing to say is that it’s not actually much of a surprise.