Net migration falls as fewer Eastern Europeans come to UK after EU vote

NET annual migration into Britain has fallen sharply to 273,000 in the first official statistics covering the months following the EU referendum.

The figures, published by the Office for National St ati stic s, show the decline, 49,000 down on the previous 12 months, is partly due to a drop of 22,000 in the net influx from Eastern European countries such as Poland.

But the biggest fall was in net migration from countries outside Europe, including those in Africa, the Americas and Australasia, which showed a 28,000 fall.

The figures, for the 12 months to the end of September 2016, include the first three months after the Brexit vote.

They also show that there is still an overall net inflow of EU citizens into Britain with 165,000 more Europeans arriving than departing over the year.

The number of Romanians and Bulgarians coming here has also reached a record high with 74,000 people from the two countries coming to Britain during the year — up 19,000 on the previous 12 months.

Immigration minister Robert Goodwill said the fall in net migration — which has been at well over 300,000 in previous official statistics — was “encouraging” and pledged to continue the Government’s efforts to bring the total down to the “tens of thousands”.

He added: “We will continue reforming routes to the UK from outside Europe and will use the opportunity to take control of immigration from within the EU as we begin Brexit negotiations in the coming weeks.

“The UK will always welcome those who contribute and benefit our country, but there is no consent for uncontrolled immigration.”

Nicola White, the Office for National Statistics’ head of migration statistics, said the overall decline in net migration was not “statistically significant”.

But she said the fall in the figures for Eastern Europeans and non-EU citizens was significant.

She added that there had also been a “significant decrease in non-EU longterm students immigrating to the UK” but emphasised that it was too early to draw conclusions about the impact of the Brexit vote.

“This is the first release to contain long-term international migration estimates including three months of data following the EU referendum. Although we have seen a fall in net migration of EU8 [Eastern European] citizens there have been continued increases in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria, so it is too early to say what effect the referendum result has had on long-term international migration,” she said.

Today’s figures show that the 273,000 net migration figure is comprised of 165,000 more arrivals from the EU than departures and an almost identical net inflow of 164,000 people from outside Europe.

At the same time, 56,000 more Britons left the country than returned from abroad.

Immigration totalled 596,000 — down 23,000 over the year — with 268,000 people moving here from EU countries and 257,000 coming from outside Europe. A total of 71,000 Britons returned.

Emigration, which was up by 26,000, totalled 323,000. The figure included the departure of 103,000 Europeans, 93,000 non-EU citizens and 128,000 Britons. @martinbentham