A DECADE after the Brexit vote, Britain has still not taken back control of its borders. So says a damning report published at the weekend by the independent think tank, Migration Watch.
‘Ten years ago this week, Britain voted to leave the European Union,’ it says. ‘For the millions who voted Leave, the meaning of “Take Back Control” was not complicated: bring the numbers down. Net migration had been above 300,000 a year for most of the previous decade. The government had promised to cut it to tens of thousands and had not come close. The referendum was the public’s verdict on that failure.
‘A decade after the Brexit referendum, the promise to “take back control” of immigration has not been delivered. Despite the formal end of free movement, cumulative net migration since the 2016 vote now exceeds 3.7million.’
The report asks whether that verdict was ever acted on. Their answer is emphatic. It was not. This is a shocking indictment of both the Conservative and Labour administrations. It betrays a lack of will and intent from the political establishment – an indifference to the democratic mandate of the Brexit vote. You might, indeed, be forgiven for believing that successive Prime Ministers, Home Secretaries and Secretaries of State at the Foreign Office neither wanted Brexit ‘to work’, nor to stop uncontrolled mass migration into this country.
The report traces immigration policy across five Prime Ministers. It finds that, while sovereignty over the rules was restored, no government has ever used that power to reduce the numbers.
Net migration reached a record 745,000 in 2022.
‘That is nearly eight times the upper limit of the tens of thousands pledge the Conservatives put in four consecutive manifestos. It is higher than anything ever recorded under EU free movement. This was not an accident or an unforeseen consequence. It was the direct result of choices made in 2021 by the government that had championed the Brexit mandate loudest.’
The report shows that Boris Johnson’s points-based system, introduced in January 2021, was more open than the one it replaced in every way that mattered:
- The skill threshold was cut from degree level to A-level;
- The requirement for employers to look for a British worker before hiring overseas was scrapped;
- The salary floor was lowered;
- The one hard numerical limit in the system – the 20,700 annual cap on skilled worker certificates that had been in place since 2011 and had never once been breached – was removed entirely;
- Once the rules were met, the Home Office had no power to refuse. The numbers were set by whatever employers and universities chose to demand, and demand surged.
The report details further iniquities:
- The Health and Care visa, created as a pandemic measure, was left open with no cap and no end date;
- The graduate visa, which Theresa May had abolished in 2012 precisely because it kept students in the country beyond the purpose of their studies, was quietly brought back in 2021. Before it was reinstated, fewer than 20 per cent of international students moved on to another visa after finishing their degree. By 2022, 2023 and 2024 the figure was over half;
- Labour’s own 2025 Immigration White Paper described this as ‘widespread misuse’. The policy that caused it was introduced by the government that said it was taking back control.
Rishi Sunak inherited the consequences and to his credit introduced some real tightening measures including higher salary thresholds, restrictions on student and care worker dependants. Work visas fell from 613,000 in 2023 to 369,000 in 2024. But net migration was still 431,000 for the year to December 2024, four times the tens of thousands target.
Migration Watch says the proof that a cap works is sitting in the recent past. ‘The 20,700 limit on skilled worker visas ran from 2011 to 2021, was never breached, and helped push non-EU net migration to its lowest level since the 1990s. It worked because it was a fixed ceiling. When Johnson removed it, we warned that non-EU immigration would rise sharply as a result. It did.’
Finally, Migration Watch is calling for ‘a binding numerical cap on total migration: set by the British government, answerable to the public, and adjustable at each general election’.
Migration Watch also ask us to write to our MPs to share their report on the ten years since the EU referendum with them. They have provided a template below for your convenience. Simply copy the text, paste it into an email, delete and replace any text in capitals, and send. (Or write what you wish.)
You can verify your local MP here
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Dear [NAME OF MP] I am one of your constituents, living at [YOUR ADDRESS]. June 23rd 2026 marks the tenth anniversary of the historic vote to leave the European Union. The referendum was, in large part, a mandate on immigration. ‘Take Back Control’ was understood by voters to mean control over the numbers: how many people come, who they are, and on what terms.
However, since 2016, a net 3,718,000 migrants have come to Britain. This was not an accident – it was the predictable outcome of government policies designed to boost inflows against the clearly expressed wishes of the British electorate. Migration Watch has written a full report on the campaign, the promises made, and the promises broken. You can access the report here.
The report recommends implementing a binding annual limit on total net migration, to avoid the out-of-control mass migration of the past ten years repeating itself. Please could you write to the Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood, to ask whether the Government is planning to implement this ‘cap’? Kind regards,
[YOUR NAME]
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If you receive a response from your MP and are comfortable sharing it, please forward it to us or to Migration Watch
