Net migration halves after Tory visa crackdown

Telegraph

22-05-2025

Net migration halved last year after a Tory crackdown on overseas worker and student visas, official figures show.
The number of people coming to live in the UK minus the number emigrating fell from 860,000 in the year ending 2023 to 431,000 in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The near 50 per cent fall followed restrictions introduced at the start of 2024 by the Conservatives to bar foreign workers and students from bringing their dependents and higher salary thresholds for migrants seeking skilled jobs in the UK.
The latest decrease is the largest numerical drop for any 12-month period and the ONS said the decline has been driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study in the UK.
The 431,000 – equivalent to a city the size of Bristol – is, however, still 200,000 more than the pre-Brexit years when it fluctuated between 200,000 to 250,000.
Sir Keir Starmer unveiled plans this month to reduce net migration further including requiring foreign skilled workers to be graduates, a ban on recruiting care workers from overseas and higher English language requirements for migrants.
The prime minister warned Britain risks becoming an 'island of strangers' without better integration and that he wanted net migration to have fallen 'significantly' by the next general election but he refused to set a cap or a target.
Sir Keir was also accused of undermining the immigration crackdown with his EU re-set agreement this week, under which thousands of young Europeans are set to come to the UK to live and work under a youth mobility scheme.
Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, said: 'This huge drop in net migration – dropping by 430,000, or halving – is a big step in the right direction. This is thanks to measures put in place by the last Conservative government.
'But the numbers are still far too high and need to go down a lot further. That is why we need a binding annual immigration cap, set by Parliament – at much, much lower levels.'
The 429,000 fall in net migration is the biggest calendar-year drop since the early stages of the pandemic. While it stood at 184,000 in the year ending December 2019, it decreased to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020 after a year of lockdowns and travel restrictions.
The latest figures show that long-term immigration fell below one million for the first time in three years, dropping from 1,326,000 in 2023 to 948,000 in the year ending December 2024.
Emigration rose by around 11 per cent to an estimated 517,000 for the year to December, up from 466,000 in the previous year, largely driven by students who came to the UK after the pandemic leaving the country.
The fall in immigration was driven by a sharp drop in non-EU nationals coming to the UK for work, which fell by 108,000 or 49 per cent in the year ending December 2024. People coming on student visas declined by 17 per cent in the same period.
There were larger falls in dependents coming to the UK, with study dependents down by 86 per cent, amounting to 105,000 people and work dependents dropping by 35 per cent, representing 81,000 people.
Meanwhile, emigration levels were similar for non-EU nationals and EU nationals.
Non-EU nationals accounted for 43 per cent, or 222,000 of those leaving the UK, while EU nationals made up 42 per cent of people moving from the country, accounting for 218,000 people.
Some 77,000 British nationals emigrated, making up the other 15 per cent.
Mary Gregory, Director of population statistics at the ONS, said: 'Our provisional estimates show net migration has almost halved compared with the previous year, driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study, particularly student dependants. This follows policy changes brought in restricting visa applications.
'There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.'