Ministers are under pressure to slash net migration (Image: Getty)
The figures just keep getting worse.
It was only in November that the Office for National Statistics revealed net migration hit a staggering high of 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
But Tuesday’s latest projections by the ONS paint an alarming picture of the impact that will be felt for years to come.
In June of this year, net migration is predicted to “fall” to 630,900, before dropping again to 533,800 in 2026.
Keir Starmer has vowed to overhaul the UK immigration system (Image: Getty)
In 2027 it is set to hit 436,700 before stabilising at 340,000 for the following four years.
Bringing all of this together, net migration between 2022 and 2032 will stand at almost five million people.
As Robert Jenrick, the former Immigration Minister, put it, that’s nine cities the size of Manchester.
That’s more pressure on housing, GP surgeries, hospitals, schools.
And it ramps up pressure on Prime Minister Sir .
The public wants action to reduce migration.
Millions have repeatedly voted for tighter control at every General Election.
Yet, here we are.
Britain’s addiction to cheap foreign labour is now best represented by longer waiting times for a doctors’ appointment and the vanishing dream of home ownership for many young people.
It is also having a huge effect on the social fabric of the UK.
As Tory MP Neil O’Brien points out, in 2001, about 1 in 12 people in the UK were born outside of the UK.
By the end of this decade, it will be more than one in five.
Sir has said there has been an “overreliance” on recruiting from abroad as an “easy answer”.
And he has vowed to overhaul Britain’s immigration system to restore confidence in its borders.
But the Prime Minister has refused to set a cap on migrant numbers.
And that will be music to the ears the political strategists within the and Reform UK.
has said net migration is the issue which will propel him into Downing Street.
If Sir Keir wants to have any chance of keeping hold of the keys to Number 10, net migration will have to fall dramatically.
But many don’t believe that will happen, as the Treasury desperately tries to kickstart the British economy.
The Treasury has long been blamed for Britain’s reliance on migrant workers and until this dependency ends, those waiting times for a hospital appointment are only going to get longer.
And people will only get angrier with the political class.