HOME Office immigration statistics for 2024 issued last Thursday 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 per cent up on 2023 and greater than the previous highest of 103,000 in 2002.
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. As chairman of Migration Watch, I commented: ‘The statistics 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.’
There is no mention of the Home Office immigration statistics on the BBC website nor, as far as we at Migration Watch can make out, in nationwide news bulletins. We apologise if there was and we’ve missed it.
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 net migration of 340,000 from 2029 (though it won’t get anywhere near that low) will still lead to a population increase of 5million by 2032 – barely seven years away – and 10million by 2047, the entire 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.
Last week I gave evidence to the Commons committee considering the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, as did Tony Smith, a former Border Force head, and Karl Williams, Research Director at the Centre for Policy Studies. They were followed by David Coleman, Emeritus Professor of Demography at Oxford University.
There were 30 minutes of questions from the committee, which includes Dame Angela Eagle, the Home Office Minister taking the Bill through Parliament.
You can watch David Coleman’s full appearance below.
I told the committee that the Bill is pretty pointless and will not stop the boats or ‘smash the gangs’. On balance, it will have the opposite effect and very likely encourage both traffickers and migrants; not that the committee seemed to be interested in the Bill itself.
There were no questions on how illegal Channel crossings should be addressed, or about the ECHR, the Human Rights Act and the part they play in encouraging illegal migration.
You can watch my full appearance below.
