In the recent debate on membership of the European Union Nick Clegg under-estimated the increase in the EU population of the UK by about ½ million – roughly the population of the city of Liverpool. It seems that he was unaware that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have admitted that their estimates of the number of East European migrants were significantly wrong. This is borne out by the Annual Population Survey (see here).
Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch UK said “It is extraordinary that the Deputy Prime Minister could lose half a million immigrants in this way. He kept stressing the importance of facts and then got his own completely wrong, while accusing those who get them right of “scaremongering”. On a matter of such widespread public concern it is very disappointing that the Deputy Prime Minster should get his facts so seriously wrong.”