More Brits worried about immigration than health
Fears about immigration have climbed by four percentage points compared to a fortnight ago, to 56 per cent. Healthcare ranked almost equally with immigration in June last year, but since then border control has become more important to Brits. Meanwhile concern about crime has risen three points in the last few weeks – coinciding with Reform's 'Lawless Britain' campaign that has seen the party unveil a number of new recruits to create new policy and urge the government to 'protect our streets, not our tweets'.
Today's polling coincides with another data dump by the organisation, which reveals that just under half of Brits support 'admitting no more new migrants and requiring large numbers of migrants who came to the UK in recent years to leave'. Mass deportation is an idea that has been championed by ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe – with his stance on the issue driving a wedge between himself and his former colleagues. The survey also showed that almost half of respondents thought there were more illegal immigrants in the UK than legal, with this group more likely to be in favour of mass deportation.
YouGov has called the results 'extraordinary', while researcher Matthew Smith noted:
Almost half of Britons (47 per cent) think there are more migrants staying in the UK illegally rather than legally. Crucially, this view is held by 72% of those who want to see mass removals. However, these perceptions appear to be wide of the mark. Estimates of the population of illegal migrants living in the UK range from 120,000 to 1.3 million, with Reform UK's Zia Yusuf recently putting the figure at 1.2 million. Regardless of which figure from this range is chosen, it does not come close to the number of migrants living in the UK legally, with 2021/2022 census data putting the entire foreign-born population of the UK at 10.7 million.
The figures put more pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to 'smash the gangs' as the Prime Minister's 'one in, one out' policy takes effect today. But much scepticism remains about exactly how effective the scheme will be – while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has refused to say exactly how many migrants will be returned under the plan. It's hardly the best start…
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