Number of Romanians living in Britain rockets by 25 per cent in just one year
ROMANIANS are now the second commonest foreign nationality in Britain, offi cial fi gures showed yesterday.
Citizens from the eastern European state were among some 3.8 million people from other EU countries living in the UK.
Campaigners said the fi gures from the Offi ce for National Statistics fl ew in the face of Remainers’ warnings of a “Brexodus” of EU workers since the 2016 referendum.
Romanians have overtaken people from Ireland and India to claim second place behind Poles in a league table of non- Britons living here who are citizens of another country.
An estimated 411,000 Romanian nationals were living in the UK last year, a 25 per cent increase since 2016 and the biggest increase recorded for people from any country.
Romania and Bulgaria became the EU’s poorest members when they joined in 2007.
Limits on their citizens’ rights to live and work in Britain were lifted in 2014.
A total of 6.2 million non- British nationals were living in the UK in 2017 – about a 10th of the population, the ONS said. FOOD waste from the House of Commons has more than doubled in the past three years to nearly 300 tons.
Now senior MPs are demanding action over the “staggering” level of waste.
Last year parliamentary caterers threw out 282 tons of food – equal to the weight of 21 London buses.
That was up from 130 tons in 2015 and 228 tons in the 2016- 17 period.
Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, who chairs the All- Party Parliamentary Group on food waste and sits on the Commons Environment Committee, said yesterday the wastage totals were “staggering”.
Pledging to seek talks with House authorities, she said Parliament had signed up to a voluntary hospitality and food service agreement created by recycling charity Wrap.
Recycled
“But it seems this has had no positive effect.”
The Commons Commission, which runs the parliamentary estate, said it takes “various measures to monitor and reduce the amount of food waste”.
A Commons spokesman also said the establishment’s discards were “well below” national averages and are recycled into fertiliser and gas for energy generation.
There is now growing use of anaerobic digestion, or AD – a method of turning food waste into fertiliser.
Criticising the authorities’ response, Ms McCarthy added: “It’s disappointing this increase is not considered particularly problematic That was up four per cent on the year before.
Some 3.8 million or 61 per cent of the non- British citizens held passports from another EU country, about the same as in 2016.
Separate fi gures showing the number of people in Britain who were born abroad – which is different from foreign nationals because some acquire because the food waste is sent to anaerobic digestion.
“Even though it is more environmentally preferable to send it to AD ahead of landfi ll and incineration, it is nonetheless still wasted.
“AD should ideally be used for food waste that couldn’t otherwise be prevented or British citizenship – rose by three per cent from 9.2 million in 2016 to 9.4 million in 2017, around one in seven of the population.
People born in another EU country or with an EU passport accounted for six per cent of the total 65.2 million population.
Alp Mehmet, vicechairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “There is still no re- used, such as egg shells and banana skins, with the primary focus on prevention and overseeing a decline in waste.”
Green Party co- leader MP Caroline Lucas voiced her anger, declaring: “We know that food waste contributes to climate change and other 2. Romania... 411,000 4. India... 346,000 6. Portugal 235,000 8. Pakistan 188,000 10. France 181,000 12. China 147,000 14. Latvia 117,000 16. Hungary 98,000 18. Australia 87,000 20. Bangladesh 84,000 sign of a net outfl ow of EU- born people as a result of Brexit. They are still coming in numbers and contributing to a population increase which is unsustainable.”
Nicola White, of the ONS migration team, said: “Non- UK born and nonBritish populations continued to increase in 2017, as more people continued to come to the UK environmental problems and Parliament should be at the forefront of tackling this.
“I’d like to know why this problem is getting worse – and see the parliamentary authorities act quickly to reduce the amount of food waste year on year.”
Labour MP Mary Creagh, to live. The largest increases were seen from those born in Romania.”
The ONS survey identifi ed the areas of Britain which have experienced the biggest increase in non- UK- born residents since 2007.
Boston in Lincolnshire was the most changed, with its foreign- born population rising from three to 29 per cent.