What has caused the increase in net migration?

Rishi Sunak is facing pressure from the Tory right wing after net migration hit a new record of 745,000.

Revised estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) put net migration to the UK in the year to December 2022 higher than previously thought. However, the figure for the year to June 2023 is estimated to be lower, at 672,000.

Former home secretary Suella Braverman said that while in Government she had pushed for a number of measures, including an annual cap on net migration, the closure of the graduate visa route and a cap on health and social care visas.

Most people arriving in the UK in the year ending June 2023 were non-EU nationals (968,000), followed by EU (129,000) and British (84,000), the ONS said.

Non-EU nationals who immigrated to the UK, by reason. PA Graphics

Study remained the biggest contributor to non-EU immigration in that period, accounting for 39 per cent, largely unchanged compared with the previous period.

The next biggest contributor to non-EU immigration was migrants coming for work – having risen to 33 per cent, from 23 per cent in the year ending June 2022, and largely attributed to people on health and care visas.

Arrivals of people via humanitarian routes have fallen from 19 per cent to 9 per cent over the same period, the ONS said, with most of these made up of Ukrainians and British Nationals (Overseas) arrivals from Hong Kong.

Estimated long-term net migration to the UK. PA Graphics.

Labour said the figures were a sign of the Government’s “failure” on immigration.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These figures are driven by a 54 per cent increase in work visas and a 156 per cent increase in health and social care visas which prove the Conservatives’ abysmal record on skills, training and workforce planning, as they have run our economy into the ground.

“They are still failing to make changes Labour has called for to end the 20 per cent wage discount in the immigration system and to link it to training requirements.”

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.