Comments
This morning the government was able to celebrate some sorely needed good news. Long-term net migration has fallen sharply to 171,000 per year, down from 331,000 this time last year. Net migration is now less than a fifth of what it was at the peak of the post-Covid immigration wave. If we discount the Covid years it is the lowest that net migration has been since 2012.
It’s a remarkable achievement whichever way you cut it, though there is still clear room for improvement. The number of people immigrating for asylum has increased slightly from 87,000 to 88,000. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also acknowledges that much of the fall in net migration has come from rule changes such as stopping care workers and students from bringing family members – changes which were implemented during the Sunak government.
So there are legitimate criticisms of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s record on immigration. One criticism which is not correct is the charge levied by many people on social media and in the media that net migration is falling because of a wave of British emigration. The shadow home secretary said that British citizens are ‘leaving the UK on a massive scale, driven away by Labour’s high taxes’.
