Brexit slows British population boom

THE UK population has topped 66million, official estimates reveal.

In the 12 months to the middle of 2017, numbers rose by 392,000 to reach 66,040,229 – but a Brexit brake has slowed the boom of the past two decades.

The increase is down by more than a quarter on the 538,000 extra people recorded in the previous year.

The Office for National Statistics said the key reason was a fall in immigration from EU countries following the referendum. Tony Blair’s government opened the doors of the British labour market in 2004 to workers from Poland and seven other Eastern European countries, a decision which drew more than a million people into the country. Yesterday’s ONS estimates show that in the 20 years after Mr Blair moved into Downing Street, the population has risen by over 7.7 million. Neil Park of the ONS Population Estimates Unit said: ‘This is the lowest annual population growth since 2004 due to a fall in net migration, fewer births and more deaths than previously seen.’

The ONS report added: ‘These changes suggest that Brexit is likely to be a factor in people’s decision to move to or from the UK.’ However the figures failed to please Lord Green of Deddington, head of Migration Watch UK.

He said: ‘Yet another record population at 66million. This is an increase in one year alone greater than the population of either Cardiff or Newcastle and more than half of it is down to immigration.

‘When will the Government realise that this simply cannot be allowed to go on?’

Net migration – the number added to the population after both immigration and emigration – was down to 232,400, compared to 345,200 in the previous year.