.png)
6 hours ago
3
Net migration to the UK has nearly halved over the year to 431,000, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said, publishing figures that will bring some relief to Keir Starmer.
The drop from 860,000 in the year to December 2024 follows a series of policies implemented by the last Conservative government that have been continued by the present Labour government.
It is the biggest calendar-year drop since the early stages of the Covid pandemic, when net migration fell from 184,000 in the year ending December 2019 to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020.
It is also the largest numerical drop for any 12-month period. The ONS said the sharp decline was caused by reduced immigration from non-EU countries for work and study visas and by an increase in emigration from the UK.
A large number of international students who originally came before the Covid-19 travel restrictions to the UK were eased had also left, the ONS said.
In June 2023, net migration hit a record high of 906,000 and it stood at 728,000 in the year to June 2024, shortly before Labour took over from the previous Conservative government.
The issue of net migration has become a key electoral battleground, with deepening concern among voters about the NHS, housing and the small boats crisis in the Channel.
With the challenge from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK focused on immigration, the figures will be claimed as a boost to Starmer, who has pledged to reduce them before the next election.
The fall in numbers has also been caused by a series of restrictions introduced by the Conservative government in the year before July’s general election.
These included a ban on foreign students and care workers bringing dependants with them to the UK, a doubling in the minimum salary threshold needed for work visas to £38,700 and the minimum income needed for British residents to bring family members to join them to £29,000.
The figure for 2024 was calculated by taking the number of people immigrating, and subtracting the number of people emigrating. Data shows that 948,000 people came to Britain in 2024, and 517,000 left.
Immigration was down by almost a third, from 1,326,000 in the previous 12 months, and below 1 million for the first time since the 12 months to March 2022. Emigration was up by about 11%, from 466,000 in the previous year.
The number of people leaving the UK has returned to a similar level as in the year ending June 2017.
After Reform UK’s success in May’s local elections and the Runcorn byelection, Labour has hardened its position on immigration.
Starmer was criticised last week when he said the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” without tough new policies. Some politicians said his words echoed Powell’s notorious “rivers of blood” speech, which imagined a future multicultural Britain where the white population “found themselves made strangers in their own country”.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “The 300,000 drop in net migration since the election is important and welcome after the figures quadrupled to nearly a million in the last parliament.
“Our immigration white paper sets out radical reforms to further reduce net migration.
“These figures show a big increase in returns of failed asylum seekers and foreign national offenders, record levels of illegal working penalties, and the asylum backlog and hotel use coming down.
“We are going even further by introducing new counter-terrorism style powers to boost our border security and smash the people-smuggling gangs responsible for their vile trade.”
