Manchester Airport. Photo Chris Craggs/Alamy Stock Photo.
The government has dishonestly seized on migration figures to suggest that Britain’s immigration crisis is improving.
The fall in “net migration” to 204,000 for the year ending June 2025 was described by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as a “step in the right direction”. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood trumpeted, “Net migration is at its lowest level in half a decade and has fallen by more than two-thirds under this government.”
Focusing on net migration conceals and distorts the reality. Just under 900,000 people, mainly from outside Europe, moved to Britain during that period. In total over five million have done so in the past five years. That is not far short of the entire population of New Zealand – or Scotland!
The number of people arriving legally dwarfs those arriving illegally on small boats (43,000 in the year ending June 2025). And inevitably Keir Starmer blames illegal migration on Brexit and Reform UK.
But the number of Channel crossings continues to climb under the Labour government, more or less back to the peak in 2022-2023. While asylum applications are slowly processed, many are held in costly hotels – and that number is growing, around 36,000 at the end of September.
According to the National Audit Office this all cost about £4 billion in 2024-25. Government promises to change things have had little impact. All they do is point to lower figures than a couple of years ago, ignoring current trends.
The bad news doesn’t end there. The reduced “net” migration figure was achieved partly because a quarter of a million Britons left the country, mainly young people between 18 and 35. Many seek opportunities for training and career advancement that Britain is failing to provide.