The message is clear, but still ignored…
TruNak may not want to debate immigration but the voters do and are saying, ‘Reduce it, now!”
The crystal clear message of the new polling we commissioned is that the vast majority of British voters want to see a reduction in immigration. While the remaining two Conservative party leadership candidates get quizzed on where they bought their earrings and the cost of their suit, there has been little about the real issue – the eye-popping scale of immigration. It’s all very well to pay lip service to Rwanda and the chaos in the Channel, but annual net migration of the past 20 years or so continues to dwarf the numbers claiming asylum by five or six to one. Some key facts from the aforementioned poll:
- 60% of the public wish to see the number of immigrants coming to the UK reduced, with 34% saying they want it reduced by a lot
- 73% of Conservative voters favour a reduction in immigration, with 49% saying they want a reduction by a lot
- Of those who voted Conservative in 2019 but who no longer support the party, the number in favour of a reduction is 86%
- 47% of respondents said that the increase of seven million in Britain’s population due to immigration over the last 20 years was fairly negative or very negative. Only 28% thought it fairly or very positive
- Out of Conservative voters, 40% wanted a substantial reduction in net migration, 19% wanted a target of tens of thousands, while 18% wanted a commitment to stop all immigration to the UK. In all, 77%.
Please read here our Chairman Alp Mehmet’s analysis of the gap between the thinking that these clear and unambiguous figures reflect and what the two candidates are saying. As Britain seeks to navigate through uncertain economic times and global instability after two years of a pandemic, the country’s services, housing and skilled employment opportunities are stretched to the limit by a population explosion (6.6% in just 10 years) that is driven by immigration. We simply cannot afford to keep dodging the issue of unchecked and uncontrolled immigration, which is what we now have.
Alp has written an open letter to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak challenging them to commit to reducing immigration and keeping the promise made to the British in the last four elections. (You can read the letter here.)
Blog of the week
What Is The Standard Of Proof Required In Asylum Claims?
The share of asylum application approvals at the initial (pre-appeal) stage has risen dramatically in the past few years. While 34% of decisions at initial stage were grants in the year to September 2017, 64% of decisions at initial stage were grants of asylum or another form of protection in the year to September 2021. The comparative asylum acceptance rates at first instance indicate why so many now end up trying to reach the UK from safe countries like France. The share of asylum acceptance at first instance during 2020 was about 25% in France versus 46% in the UK. See our full blog here.
Migration Watch in the news
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that we have been in demand by the national media again this week. See below:
GB News: What’s the solution to our high levels of immigration?
‘We’ve seen an increase of our population over the last ten years of three and half million… that sort of increase in our population is nuts, absolutely mad.’
GB News: Which leadership candidate has the best immigration policies?
‘Asylum is really one fifth/one sixth of overall legal immigration. And they are just scared, they are running scared of actually discussing the issue.’
Talk TV: We have a lack of immigration controls in this country
‘The one question that all the candidates bar one… have ducked, has been overall net migration, which is now, probably, running at its highest level ever.’
‘The asylum system is so open to abuse that adults claiming to be children can be given the benefit of the doubt and be placed among minors in both accommodation and schools.
‘The risks to the safety of our children are obvious.
‘It is high time the Government stopped pandering to the immigration industry and dealt with adult migrants as such and not as what they claim to be.’
Breitbart: ‘Ineffective’ UK Border Force May Have Made Channel Crisis Worse: Official Report
‘This is a thorough and painstaking report with which Alexander Downer pulls no punches,’ said Alp Mehmet, chairman of the Migration Watch UK think tank, in comments to Breitbart London.
‘Going by Mr Downer’s damning review, the Border Force’s operational defects and tendency to lurch from crisis to crisis will not be solved by any amount of more up-to-date equipment or boost to recruitment,’ he suggested.
‘The Home Secretary’s ambition to have in place a “best in the world” system in place by 2025 strikes me as pie in the sky. I really hope I am wrong,’ he added.
See below below for our statement on the back of new polling demonstrating public anxieties about uncontrolled net migration.
MWUK: Conservative voters strongly favour reducing immigration
‘Both leadership candidates are focussing on asylum which is only a small part of the wider immigration issue. This survey underlines the failure of both contenders for the Conservative leadership to address the real issue, the sheer scale of immigration, which is of vital importance for their supporters as well as the general public, not to speak of the future of our country. I have written to them both calling on them to commit to a substantial reduction in net migration.
‘This remarkable poll shows very clearly that such reduction is desired by just over three quarters of their supporters and by 60% of the country as a whole.’
See here for a reference to our new polling in Breitbart.
Please see also our Chairman Alp Mehmet’s piece in Conservative Home on the new polling figures showing deep concerns about mass immigration.
Conservative Home: Conservative voters demand action on immigration. Which candidate will offer it?
‘Our poll reveals a deep undercurrent of concern about the impact of massive levels of immigration on the future of our society. Indeed, it shows that 60 per cent of the British public want to see a reduction in immigration, and 34 per cent want to see it reduced by a lot.’
Also, Alp wrote a letter in the 26 July edition of The Times on the silence from both Tory candidates on mass immigration, and our polling figures. You can read it here.
Make your voice heard
The political class (with a few notable exceptions) seem to think that the more they duck and dive with regard to the issue of mass, uncontrolled immigration, the more they can avoid being held to account by the British public. Our polling discussed above proves what we already knew, that there is an ever-widening gap between voter and politician on the issues of borders and immigration. We are doing our level best to close this gap. With your help, we believe we can do it. If you share our deep concern and frustration about the way the government has further opened up Britain to global immigration (despite promising to do the opposite) then please consider writing to your MP to let him or her know your feelings. And should you find yourself at one of the leadership hustings in the coming weeks, do ask the candidates if they will commit to reducing immigration, as challenged by Migration Watch.