The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released the most recent migration statistics for Britain, revealing a net migration total of 672,000 for the year ending in June 2023. Alongside this data, the ONS disclosed that “over the past two years, net migration [to Britain] has reached its highest level on record.”
Included in the data were the “top five non-EU nationalities for immigration”, which were reported as 253,000 Indians, 141,000 Nigerians, 89,000 Chinese, 55,000 Pakistanis and 35,000 Ukrainians. In contrast, 129,000 EU nationals emigrated to Britain, comprising 11% of the total migrant population in the year ending June 2023.
Additionally, the ONS acknowledged an error in their initial calculation of net migration for 2022, where they significantly underestimated the figure at 606,000 individuals. This has since been revised, with the accurate total now standing at 745,000 immigrants for the year ending in December 2023.
Emigration statistics for Britain were also disclosed, amounting to a total of 508,000 individuals, in the year ending June 2023. This included 200,000 non-EU nationals, 215,000 EU nationals, and 93,000 British nationals who departed from Britain.
It’s important to note that net migration does not encompass the entire number of immigrants that entered Britain. Instead, it is a calculation that subtracts the number of individuals who emigrated from the United Kingdom. Therefore, the total immigration figures for Britain in 2023 are estimated at 1.18 million people.
Members of Parliament on the right of the Conservative Party reacted furiously to Britain’s mega migration numbers on the social media platform ‘X’ – formerly known as Twitter.
The most damning critique from Conservative backbenchers against Rishi Sunak’s government was delivered by Suella Braverman, the former Home Secretary and MP for Fareham.
“Today’s record migration stats show we’ve let in an extra million people in just 2 years, a population equivalent to Birmingham. The pressure on housing, the NHS, schools, wages, and community cohesion, is unsustainable. When do we say: enough is enough?”, Braverman tweeted.
“We were elected on a pledge to reduce net migration, which was 229k in 2019. Today’s record numbers are a slap in the face to the British public who have voted to control and reduce migration at every opportunity. We must act now to reduce migration to sustainable levels”, Braverman continued in her blistering attack.
Miriam Cates the Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge also roasted the Tory government by branding the immigration numbers as “astounding”.
“A million new people from abroad were added to our population last year. There is simply no democratic consent for this. Attempts to reduce NHS waiting times or solve the housing crisis are futile unless we drastically reduce numbers”, Cates insisted.
In a daming critique of the government, Cates went on to suggest that whilst the government has “control over legal migration” they have “failed to exercise that control”.
“All those coming to the UK with visas have played by the rules. The problem is the rules are wrong. We must increase work visa salary requirements and reduce student visas”, Cates continued.
Danny Kruger, Conservative MP for Devizes also chimed in on the debate and asserted that “high rates of immigration depress wages, reduce investment in skills and technology, put unsustainable pressure on housing and public services, and threaten community cohesion.
Jonathan Gullis, the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent North, branded the record migration numbers as “completely unacceptable”.
“We must take drastic action now to bring legal migration down, as well as do whatever we must to stop the boats”, Gullis continued.
Conservative and right-wing pundits joined the MPs in voicing their frustration with the government’s immigration policy.
“Young people will never have a future in this country, be able to buy a house, send their kids to school – have a good healthcare system unless we stop having a 672,000 net migration level every year”, young influencer Sophie Corcoran asserted.
“Mass migration is a disaster for my generation and it is time we wake up”, Corcoran continued.
Political commentator and journalist Isabel Oakeshott remarked that Britain’s migration numbers were “absolutely astonishing, but at the same time depressingly not surprising”.
“This old canard about ‘we need to import more people because we’ve got loads of job vacancies we can’t fill’ is patent nonsense – we’ve never had a bigger population”, Oakeshott continued.
British broadcaster Rafe Heydel-Mankoo also weighed in on the debate suggesting that Britons should “not accept NET migration figures”.
“Net migration figures mask the true number of arrivals & the cultural change they bring. Net equals gross minus all those that left the UK in 2022”, Heydel-Mankoo said.
“But those arriving are NOT the same as those leaving, which includes many Britons going to Spain, Canada, Australia etc. as well as culturally adjusted residents leaving for Europe etc. This is not a “like-for-like” swap, yet that is what NET migration figures suggest”, he continued.
“The departure of so many culturally British people and the arrival of so many more who have no cultural affinity with or understanding of Britain is having a profound social, cultural and demographic impact”, Heydel-Mankoo insisted.
“We’ve got open border chaos”, proclaimed Richard Tice, the leader of the British political party ‘Reform’.
Tice went on to suggest that instead of continuing to import unskilled immigrants, “we should be training our own people as historically we’ve always done”.
