There is no greater area of failure in public perception than immigration. Not one.
Look at the facts. The latest official data shows one of the sharpest drops in net migration since records began, at just 171,000 in the year to December 2025. That’s half of the previous year and a fall of three quarters on the year before that. The number of people claiming asylum is down by 12 per cent and the number of asylum seekers living in hotels is down by a third.
What do the public believe?
British Future’s Immigration Attitudes Tracker, released today, found just 16 per cent of people think migration fell in the past year, while 49 per cent of people believe it increased and 51 per cent expect it to increase next year as well. They are utterly detached from the reality of the issue.
The public are not just wrong about trends, they are also mistaken about the basic facts. They estimate that 33 per cent of immigrants are asylum seekers. The real figure is 9 per cent. They believe students make up 24 per cent of UK immigration. The real figure is 52 per cent.
