Net migration reached a new record in 2022 of 750,000, revised figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show. This figure is a revision of the numbers released in May which was 606,000 – then record-breaking.
Today, the ONS also released the figures on net migration to the UK in the year to June 2023 of 672,000. This would have been a new record had 140,000 migrants – roughly the population of Cambridge – not been added to May’s tally.
Some 1.2 million more visas were granted in the year to March 2023 than the previous year. Of these, work visas and study visas were up a combined 360,000 and extensions are common.
These figures come a day after the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement which made no reference to the fiscal and monetary pressures of such vast amounts of net migration. According to the Telegraph, on Wednesday the budget watchdog also told Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that his policies would fail to reduce immigration numbers.
According to the ONS, 508,000 people left the country.
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