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In case you missed it, Home Office statistics issued on Thursday (27th February) contained some extraordinary figures. There were
- 850,000 long-term visas issued
- 162,000 grants for settlement
- 417,000 extensions of stay for work
- 108,000 asylum applications, 18% up on 2023 and greater than the previous highest of 103,000 in 2002
This was our comment:
“The latest Home Office immigration statistics for 2024 show that inflows, particularly for work, have remained damagingly high. Any decreases from the previous year were largely the result of measures put in place by the Tories.
In other news we learned that the number of 16 to 24-year-olds not in work or education has hit an 11-year high at nearly 1,000,000.
The government must shake off its complacency, tackle legal and illegal inflows, stop importing cheaper workers and start prioritising the future of our own young people. Nothing they have done or said so far will do this.”
The sentence in bold was reported by the BBC and based on data released by the ONS. There is no mention of the Home Office immigration statistics on the BBC website and as far as we can make out, there was no mention in nationwide news bulletins. And we apologise if there was and we’ve missed it.
There was comment from immigration enthusiasts to the effect that the figures showed immigration to have fallen in the last six months of 2024 – in other words, since Labour came to office. This is totally disingenuous. As Alp said in our comment, any falls in July to December last year largely came about because of measures introduced by the Conservatives.
Moreover, an inflow of 850,000 has serious implications for housing and services and integration. Perhaps this is all about trying to take the sting out of the colossal net migration figures that are now part of the daily dialogue and the progressive left’s narrative. No matter that even net migration of 340,000 from 2029 (it won’t get anywhere near that low) will still lead to a population increase of five million by 2032 – barely seven years away – and 10 million by 2047. All of the increase resulting from migration and the children born to migrants.
Let’s not allow the open-borders enthusiasts to desensitise us to these catastrophically high numbers. As we said last week, numbers matter, a lot.
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every week as soon as it is released.