Net migration to the UK is estimated to have halved in a boost for Sir Keir Starmer.
The Office for National Statistics revealed this morning that net migration to the UK is estimated to have halved from 860,000 in the year ending December 2023 to 431,000 in the year ending December 2024.
It comes less than a fortnight after Starmer said high net migration had caused "incalculable" damage to British society, as he set out a series of measures aimed at reducing further the number of people moving long term to the UK.
The previous biggest calendar year fall was during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, when net migration dropped from 184,000 in the year ending December 2019 to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020.
The news will be a boost for Sir Keir StarmerPAThis is the biggest calendar-year drop since the early stages of the pandemic when net migration fell from 184,000 in the year ending December 2019 to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020.
Director of population statistics at the ONS Mary Gregory said: "Our provisional estimates show net migration has almost halved compared with the previous year, driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study, particularly student dependants.
"This follows policy changes brought in restricting visa applications.
"There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased."
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The announcement will be seen as a boost for the front bench
GBNEWSThere was a 49 per cent decrease in 2024 in the number of non-EU+ nationals arriving in the UK as the main applicant on a work visa, along with a 35 per cent fall in those coming as work dependants.
The number of non-EU+ nationals arriving as main applicants on a study visa dropped by 17 per cent, while there was a much larger fall of 86 per cent in study dependants.
The drop is likely to reflect changes in migration rules introduced in early 2024 by the previous Conservative government, which included restricting the ability of most international students to bring family members.
Non-EU+ nationals refers to people who are not from the European Union or from Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
The Prime Minister, who said the country risks becoming an "island of strangers" without better integration, said he wanted net migration to have fallen "significantly" by the next general election, but refused to set a target number.
Reference to strangers faced criticism, including from Labour backbenchers as well as Liberal Democrat and Green MPs as it was said by some to have echoes of Enoch Powell’s infamous "rivers of blood" speech.
But Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended the Prime Minister, insisting the tone of his plan was "completely different" from the 1968 anti-immigration speech.
