A record number of immigrants to Britain has pushed annual net migration to nearly 300,000 in a final blow to David Cameron’s pledge to cut the overseas influx.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 624,000 people moved here in the 12 months to the end of September last year — the highest number on record — while around 327,000 people left the country.
The net inflow of 298,000 is 54,000 more than the figure when Mr Cameron entered Downing Street in 2010 and pledged to cut net migration to below 100,000. It is only 22,000 short of the highest net migration figure of 320,000, recorded under Labour in 2005.
Immigration minister James Brokenshire expressed dismay at today’s figures, but insisted that the government was right to attempt to curb the number of arrivals. He said: “Uncontrolled, mass immigration makes it difficult to maintain social cohesion, puts pressure on public services, and can force down wages.
"That’s why this Government is working to reduce net migration — and why today’s figures are clearly so disappointing.”
Opposition parties, business groups and other campaigners seized on the figures as evidence of the government’s failure as they called for the Conservative migration target to be scrapped.
Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg said the figures were “very embarrassing for the Conservatives” and accused Mr Cameron of ignoring his warning that the net target was unworkable.
“They made a huge fanfare about it and they were warned — warned by me and others privately, ‘Don’t do this, it doesn’t make any sense’,” he told LBC radio. “They've made a commitment and they have failed spectacularly to deliver it.”
Sunder Katwala, the director of the think tank British Future, said: “If there’s anyone left who thinks the net migration target is a good idea, they should step forward and set out a policy for achieving it.”
There was a net inflow of 191,000 people from Asian, African and other countries outside the EU, while 162,000 more EU citizens arrived than departed. The number of Romanians and Bulgarians arriving was 37,000, a rise of 13,000. The inflow from other European countries also grew, with 78,000 from Poland and other nations which joined the EU in 2004.
Madeleine Sumption, the director of Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, said that even without increased arrivals from the EU, net migration “would still have been more than double” the Conservative target.
