Britain has seen a dramatic spike in the number of migrants receiving taxpayer-funded English lessons, shocking statistics shared with GB News reveal.
Data obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC) shows 168,730 migrants aged 16 and over enrolled on taxpayer-funded English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses in 2024/25.
The figures show a rise of 44,090 students in just five years, with one in three pupils in Glasgow now reporting to have a first language other than English.
Since 2018/19, the Department for Education (DfE) has spent a whopping £347million on non-devolved funding for ESOL lessons.
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However, this figure does not include additional funding allocated by devolved bodies, which also hold responsibility for ESOL provision.
In response, Robert Bates, the CMC's Research Director, said: “What a ridiculous waste of money. If people are unable to speak English, they should not be in the country. Those seeking asylum would be better served by seeking residency in countries that are linguistically and culturally familiar to them, rather than coming to Britain.”
“ESOL languages have exploded because low-grade politicians and government officials have devised an endless procession of 'integration' strategies which amount to nothing more than a coffee morning and teach people how to say hello."
Mr Bates fumed: “The taxpayer deserves better than this. The British people deserve better than this. Time to scrap ESOL courses and put money into improving the lives of British people.”
Nearly 170,000 migrants were enrolled on publicly-funded English courses last year
|GETTY
The 2021 Census of England and Wales shows a significant number of migrants aged 16 and over spoke little or no English. The data also showed almost 800,000 people could not speak English well.
Of those, nearly 138,000 reported they were unable to speak English at all.
Responding to the findings, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “It disgraceful the hard-pressed British taxpayer is having to fund English lessons for immigrants. People who come here should be able to speak English already. This is a total waste of money, and standards must be raised so we don’t let in people who can’t speak English.”
“I am deeply concerned there are parts of the country where huge proportions of the people are foreign born and don’t speak English as their first language. The risks of creating ghettos where immigrant communities don’t integrate, but simply seek to recreate their own home culture in the UK across whole neighborhoods.”
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Mr Philp continued: “This is divisive and ultimately undermines the foundations of the nation state - which are a shared identity, shared values and a shared culture. This shows that mass immigration must urgently end. And those here illegally must all be deported and those here on temporary visas must leave when they expire if they are not making a meaningful economic contribution.”
Former immigration minister, Kevin Foster told the People's Channel: “The move to increase language requirements will have some impact, but those seeking to bypass immigration rules by gaming the asylum system will not be deterred by them.
“Many who do so will then live in parts of Britian where they can live day to day without speaking English, increasingly separating those areas from wider society.”
Mr Foster added: “Those who have a skill and can speak good English can look to migrate to the UK or other English-speaking nations legally.
"Suggesting those arriving by small boat all speak English is as credible as claiming they are all Doctors and Engineers."
Of the people who cannot speak English or cannot speak it well, nearly a third are Syrians, while more than a quarter of people from Bangladesh fall into the same category.
Meanwhile, around a fifth of arrivals from China and Pakistan arrive in Britain unable to speak English.
William Yarwood, Media Campaign Manager, at the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: “This is the inevitable consequence of a migration system that waved people in first and worried about integration later.”
“If over a million people in Britain speak little or no English, then language requirements have clearly been far too lax.”
Mr Yarwood added: "The solution is far stricter than language requirements before arrival, not taxpayer-funded catch-up afterwards."
Net migration to the UK has experienced a significant downturn since its peak in 2022/23, falling from approximately 906,000 to 728,000 by 2023/24 and further to 204,000 by 2024/25.
GB News has approached the Department for Education for comment.
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