Off target on immigration

How goes the Tories’ plan to reduce net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’ over this Parliament? Not too well, judging by the latest ONS figures released today. As it is, net migration was 252,000 in the year up to September 2011. That, lest you need reminding, is over double the Tory target.

No.10, however, has been fairly defiant in response. ‘It’s still our intention to bring levels of net migration back down to tens of thousands,’ said a spokesman today, before adding that, ‘clearly that’s going to take some time.’ They also cited different Home Office statistics, which record the number of visas issued up until March of this year. They show significant drops in the number of family, study and work visas that are being dished out:

So what should we believe? In truth, it’s hard to tell. The visa numbers basically don’t apply to European nationals, who make-up a big chunk of our immigrants.