Stephen Pollard

choose to come and live in the UK. Which is why we should not overreact too positively to this week’s figures. Immigration minister Brandon Lewis probably had it right when he said that he is “encouraged” by the fall but that “there is still more work to do to bring net migration down further to sustainable levels”.

Yes, the figures show a serious reduction from the peak net migration figures of over 330,000 people a year during 2015 and the first half of 2016.

But the trend in recent years has been very much towards high and increasing immigration and one should be wary of reading too much into just one period. And the level of immigration remains unsustainable.

Remainers have used the latest figures to label the departure of 89,000 EU citizens – 33,000 more than a year ago – along with the 134,000 Brits who left the UK at the same time, as a “Brexodus”. They mean it as an attack on Brexit, of course. But whatever they mean by it, they may actually be right. We know that net migration dropped after the referendum last June. These latest figures show a levelling off at the new lower level.

It may well be that, following the referendum, fewer EU nationals have decided to come here – and more of those who came a while ago have decided to leave. As I say, it is too soon to extrapolate such a pattern from the figures. But common sense suggests that Brexit may already be having an impact.

Take the EU8 – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. They have been the backbone of the immigration explosion that took off after 2004 when new EU members gained free movement.

The new figures show a fall to 32,000 in the number of new entrants to the UK from the EU8 – and to 18,000 from Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU in 2014.

The latest figures also show that overall, 44,000 EU nationals went home for no other reason than to go home; they did not have jobs to take up. As Nicola White of the Office for National Statistics, which compiled the figures, put it: “They indicate that the EU referendum result may be influencing people’s decision to migrate into and out of the UK, particularly EU and EU8 citizens.”

YOU hardly need me to tell you that one of the drivers behind last year’s decision by 17.4 million in favour of Brexit – the highest number of people to vote for any cause in British history – was the desire to take back control of immigration.

These latest figures show that we are still a long way from that, not least because we haven’t yet left the EU. For the moment, any impact of Brexit is entirely speculative.

But it is vital that when we do leave in March 2019, a new system that gives us control of our borders is clear and ready to implement. Yes, there may be the need for a transition period to ensure its smooth running. But that must be genuine – and not an excuse to derail taking control back.

Brexit is just 19 months away. Even on the current reduced level of immigration, another city the size of Southampton will have arrived by then – and then some.

Time is of the essence and the Government must bring forward a detailed proposal for a new immigration system as a matter of urgency.

‘Brexit may already be having an impact’