Net migration hit record 906,000 last year, revised figures show
Net migration to the UK hit a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023, official data showed, well above previous expectations.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) originally estimated the figure at 740,000, but has now revised this upward by 166,000.
Annual net migration – the difference between people entering and leaving the country – had fallen to 728,000 by June 2024, the report said.
Sir Keir Starmer seized on the figures – which cover the period before Labor came to power – to accuse the Tories of “an open borders experiment”.
He called the growth in net migration in recent years “off the scale”.
The Prime Minister promised to unveil new legal proposals aimed at reducing immigration “immediately”.
But Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said it was “very clear” that the prime minister had “no plan and no intention of tackling the massive legal immigration problem and will not fight illegal immigration”.
The Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference that “shocking” statistics showed the previous government had increased immigration “deliberately and not by accident”.
He promised to change rules for work visas and skills training to reduce reliance on foreign workers in some sectors of the economy.
But he refused to set a target to reduce overall net migration, adding that past targets targeting “arbitrary” numbers had “achieved absolutely nothing”.
After Brexit, the Conservatives implemented a points-based work visa system and immigration numbers increased dramatically.
Boris Johnson’s government also allows students Stay longer in the UK Find a job after graduation and expand visa pathways for those working in the healthcare industry.
Rishi Sunak subsequently tightened the rules, including limiting the ability of international students and carers to bring family members into the UK, and raising the salary threshold for work visas, leading to the fall of this year.
Dr Ben Brindle, a researcher at the University of Oxford’s Immigration Observatory, said: “We are yet to see the full impact of visa restrictions in the data, although preliminary data from the summer suggest immigration levels will not necessarily fall below those in the UK once the policy changes come into effect. pre-Brexit levels.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenock said her party’s immigration policy was “wrong” and she pledged to set a “strict cap” – although she has yet to commit to a specific number.
Reform Party leader Nigel Farage called the latest figures “horrible” and said he had had enough of the Conservatives’ “lies.” He added that the figures would be “much worse” if Labor were in power.
The Office for National Statistics now says that 82,000 more people have come to live in the UK than previously thought, while 84,000 fewer have left.
Other reasons given by the office for the upward revision include more information on Ukrainian visas and improvements to the immigration estimation process for non-EU nationals.
The ONS said the figures remain “official statistics under development”, meaning they may be revised in the future as more data becomes available.
Separate data from the Home Office showed that as of September, more than 130,000 people were awaiting a preliminary decision on their asylum cases. Since September 2021, the number of asylum applications has more than doubled.
Labor said it had hired more social workers to tackle the asylum backlog.
