‘Drop' in migrant numbers is nothing to celebrate… there are still 1,180 people arriving in the UK every DAY

The Sun

22-05-2025

YIPPEE! Break out the champagne, folks, because we need to celebrate the happy news that the Government is now totally in control of our borders.
After years of politicians' failed promises and even a referendum vote to 'take back control', finally we can see the fruits of our labours in the latest immigration figures published by the Office for National Statistics.
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Hold onto your hats because this is mind-blowing stuff: net migration has FALLEN BY HALF in just a year, from 860,000 in 2023 down to 431,000 last year.
This is an undeniably enormous drop in the number of people arriving on our shores to live, work and study over and above the number of people leaving to go overseas.
So why, you might ask, isn't anyone popping those corks, putting out the bunting and dancing in the street?
Well, the answer to that is pretty obvious. The numbers may finally be going in the right direction but they are still STAGGERINGLY big and far too HIGH.
The 431,000 net population increase is the equivalent of adding the inhabitants of the city of Bristol to our country every year.
That's an extra 1,180 more people coming to live here EVERY SINGLE DAY last year — a rate of almost 50 people an HOUR.
And every single one of them needed somewhere to live, access to healthcare, transport and schools for their children.
So if you wondered why you are struggling to afford to buy a home or pay your rent, or to get a doctor's appointment or find a good school for your child, or why the roads are jammed and the buses are crowded, the last few decades of exploding immigration statistics can provide the obvious answer.
Far too little, too late
Sir Keir Starmer took to social media to boast that the fall in net migration last year proves 'we're taking back control' but in truth he didn't have anything to do with it.
The drop in numbers is actually due to changes made by Rishi Sunak when he was Prime Minister, when he drastically cut the number of work visas and their dependents allowed to come to Britain.
Sir Keir Starmer has unveiled a sweeping immigration overhaul - vowing to -finally take back control of our borders
But even Sunak doesn't get any credit from the public for that as he only acted in response to widespread anger over the 'Boris Wave' of migrants post-lockdown delivered by Boris Johnson that saw a mind-blowing 1.3million new arrivals in 2023.
The latest figures published on Thursday may look better in comparison, but they still mean that 100,000 more people arrived here last year than in 2016, the year we voted for Brexit and for more control of our borders.
In fact — and this won't come as a surprise to anyone who doesn't live in Westminster's ivory towers — most immigrants aren't billionaire entrepreneurs
It's also 50 per cent higher than the 'tens of thousands' pledged by former Tory PM David Cameron way back in 2010. And of course it's far higher than the 20,000-30,000 net migration we had before Tony Blair decided to open up our borders.
In fact — and this won't come as a surprise to anyone who doesn't live in Westminster's ivory towers — most immigrants aren't billionaire entrepreneurs.
Instead they are low-wage, low-skilled workers who bring their families with them and end up costing more to the nation's coffers than they contribute.
No wonder, then, that most of us will conclude this fall in net migration is far too little and far too late.
And, after years of failed promises, immigration isn't anywhere close to where the British people want it to be.
A recent poll by Merlin Strategy revealed that an astounding 85 per cent of Brits now want net migration levels below the 100,000 mark, while HALF of voters want zero or less than zero net migration a year.
One in 20 people said they were happy with the current level of immigration — all of whom presumably work at the Home Office, the Guardian or the BBC.
Labour and the Tories may be keen to talk tough on immigration but no one believes them after years of failure to put that talk into action — and, as the latest polls show, their voters are flocking to Reform UK who have promised to deliver net zero immigration if they win power.
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Could they — would they — actually do that? Well, why not? After all, what the latest migration figures actually prove is that the number of people coming to our shores every day, every week, every month, every year, has been in the hands of the Government all this time.
Prime Ministers and Home Secretaries have had the ability — and the voter mandate — to cut those numbers any time that they chose. And they very deliberately chose NOT to cut them, time and time again.
They've used every excuse under the sun. First Tony Blair lied to us and falsely claimed that the new arrivals would be a boon to our economy when he decided to open the UK up early to migrants from eastern Europe in 2004, resulting in net migration of 200,000 the following year.
That was just a fraction of the 3.6million total of legal arrivals during his time in office.
Politicians kept telling us that they couldn't cut immigration because we were in the EU so the British people voted for Brexit so we COULD finally control the numbers.
So what did the Tory government do then? They handed out work and student visas like confetti to migrants from further afield — mostly India, Pakistan, Nigeria and China — hoping we wouldn't notice.
If our politicians can't get on top of LEGAL immigration, is it any wonder that they are also dismally failing to get a grip on ILLEGAL immigration?
Then they had the cheek to pretend to be as shocked by the numbers as we all were when they were finally made public!
And now Labour ministers plan to allow a youth mobility scheme for up to 100,000 young EU citizens to live and work here.
What could possibly go wrong when so many young Europeans live in countries with up to 50 per cent youth unemployment?
It doesn't seem to matter what voters tell the political elite, or what they promise in their manifestos at election time, the overall numbers just keep heading in the same upward direction.
Our political rulers would rather listen to business chiefs and the civil servants who are religiously wedded to the belief that more immigration is the answer to everything.
Can't get the staff to work on low wages as carers, pick fruit or wait tables? Don't bother training up young Brits on the dole, just bring in a never- ending supply of cheap labour from abroad!
Dismally failing
We don't have enough doctors or nurses? Don't fund more places for our brightest students to get medical training, just import them from overseas! Our universities are facing financial crisis?
Then offer places to thousands more foreign students paying triple the tuition fees of British undergraduates!
And if our politicians can't get on top of LEGAL immigration, is it any wonder that they are also dismally failing to get a grip on ILLEGAL immigration?
The champagne, bunting and dancing will have to wait until politicians start listening to voters and finally deliver on their immigration promises at long last
The latest forecasts predict another record year ahead of Channel boat arrivals with a possible 50,000 migrants, while the latest ONS figures show a record high of 109,000 people claimed asylum in the past year, up 17 per cent on the year before.
More and more are coming every week, with some 165,000 mostly undocumented men of fighting age arriving on Channel dinghies since 2018.
This number dwarfs the size of the British Army, now only 75,000-strong, with an entire infantry division of young men coming to our shores since the New Year.
To add insult to injury, a flotilla of 66 'Little Ships' crossing the Channel to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation this week was forced to change course to make way for a single migrant boat.
So despite the 50 per cent fall in net migration, there won't be many Brits cheering today.
The champagne, bunting and dancing will have to wait until politicians start listening to voters and finally deliver on their immigration promises at long last.