The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
UK net migration reaches new high
Rishi Sunak faced a Tory backlash as official estimates indicated net migration reached a record high of 606,000 people last year.
The prime minister said the number was “too high” while insisting he had not lost control of the immigration system.
But Conservative MPs warned of voter anger at “unsustainable” levels of net migration.
The record high for 2022 was driven by people from non-EU countries arriving for work, study and humanitarian reasons, new Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates show.
The net figure, which is the difference between the number of people moving to the UK and the number leaving, is up from 488,000 in 2021.
The estimates include people who have come to the UK from Ukraine and Hong Kong under resettlement schemes, as well as overseas students.
However there are signs that those who first arrived for study reasons in 2021 are now starting to leave, according to the ONS, which compiled the figures.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said: “We expect net migration to fall to pre-pandemic levels in the medium term.”
The Tory 2019 manifesto promised that “overall numbers will come down” as the government ended freedom of movement from the EU in the wake of Brexit.
Mr Sunak has vowed to bring down the number from the level he inherited when he took office last year.
A total of 1.2 million people are likely to have migrated to the UK in 2022, while 557,000 are estimated to have migrated from the UK in the same period.
On ITV’s This Morning, Mr Sunak said: “Numbers are too high, it’s as simple as that. And I want to bring them down.”
Asked whether immigration is out of control, Mr Sunak said: “Well, no, I think the numbers are just too high.”
But Tory anger at the inability to control net migration – a frustration dating back to David Cameron’s failure to bring it down to the “tens of thousands” he promised – was evident in the Commons.
Conservative MP Aaron Bell said the figures were too high and his voters “will expect to see them fall”, while his Tory colleague Louie French said the “unsustainable levels of migration” were having a “significant impact” on housing in south-east England.