The good news for the Government is that net migration is down. The bad news? It’s down by so little (a fall of 9,000 to a total of 327,000) that you won’t hear anyone crowing about today’s figures. That the ‘tens of thousands’ target made by the Government still hasn’t been met is no surprise at all. And we can expect to see a continuation of the semantic shift from that Tory ‘promise‘ down to a ‘pledge‘. So apart from telling us that, as far as net migration is concerned, it’s business as usual, what do today’s figures show us?
For one, they make it clear that solving this issue won’t be easy for the Prime Minister. Net migration from certain EU countries like Romania and Bulgaria is at a record high. But the continued influx of migrants into Britain is about more than just the EU: immigration of EU citizens (268,000) remains lower than that of non-EU citizens (282,000), according to the Office
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in