Brexit in focus as European migration to UK rises

NET EU migration rose at the end of last year amid growing uncertainty over Brexit, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The rise in the final quarter of 2018 is the most since the EU referendum and bucked a trend which saw net EU migration fall to its lowest in five years.

Overall migration remains well above Theresa May’s target of “tens of thousands”, with 258,000 more migrants arriving than leaving in the year to December. Some 201,000 people came from EU nations while 127,000 left the UK, a net migration of 74,000 – 17,000 up on the 57,000 for the year to the end of September. The rise was due largely to departing EU nationals falling from 145,000 to 127,000.

Madeleine Sumption, of the Migration Observatory, said “uncertainties about Brexit” might affect a long-term decline in eastern European migrants.

“The falling exchange rate means money is less valuable than it was in the past for people from Poland or Romania looking at job prospects,” she said.