UK’s net migration from EU at lowest for five years

NET MIGRATION from the EU to the UK has fallen to its lowest level in nearly five years, official figures show.

An estimated 101,000 more people from the bloc arrived than left in 2017, according to the first data for a full calendar year since the Brexit vote. The latest figure is the lowest for any 12-month period since the year to March 2013, when it stood at 95,000.

Overall net migration – the difference between the numbers of people arriving and departing for at least 12 months and including non-EU nationals – was about 282,000 in 2017. This was up by 33,000 on the previous year, but statisticians attributed the rise to an “unusual pattern” in estimates of non-EU student immigration for 2016 which research indicates was an “anomaly”.

Immigration figures published since the EU referendum have sparked claims of a “Brexodus” – though commentators pointed out more people are still coming to live in the UK than departing.

While net migration has fallen from record levels of about a third of a million in 2015 and 2016, it is still well above the Government’s target of less than 100,000.

Nicola White, of the ONS’s migration statistics division, said: “With about 280,000 more people coming to the UK than leaving in 2017, these latest figures show that migration has continued to add to the UK population.

“Net migration fell following record levels in 2015 and early 2016 and has been broadly stable.”

Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of Migration Watch UK, described the figures as “very disappointing”.

He said: “Migration from the EU is still adding 100,000 a year to our population and non-EU net migration is the highest level in a calendar year for 13 years.

“It’s time for the Government to get serious about reducing immigration instead of caving into every demand of the immigration lobby.”

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the data suggests the UK is “still an attractive country, but its allure for EU migrants has declined considerably over the past couple of years”.