Labour and Tories fight for credit on lowering migration
Long-term net migration to the UK was halved in 2024, official data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed, triggering a battle between the Labour government and the previous Conservative administration to claim credit for the fall.
Total net migration fell from 860,000 in 2023 to 431,000 in 2024, the report found.
The data revealed a 49 per cent drop in non-EU workers entering the UK alongside 86 per cent cut in the number of study dependents.
The ONS attributed the decline in long-term migration figures primarily to “people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased,” according to ONS director of population statistics, Mary Gregory.
Tories take credit
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp took credit for the falling figures. “This big drop in net migration has only happened because of tough action from the last Conservative government,” he said.
Philp conceded that “the figures are still far too high,” but accused Labour of not tackling the problem. “Labour scrapped our deterrents, binned the salary threshold rise, gutted deportation powers, and still parade around pretending their inaction is success.”
Amreen Qureshi, from the Institute for Public Policy Research’s (IPPR) migration policy unit, gave Philp’s words some credence.
The drop in net migration is “a result of several changes made earlier in 2024 under the previous government, including new restrictions on study and care worker visa holders bringing family members to the UK,” Qureshi said.
But Conservative-leaning think tanks felt it is too soon for the Tories to celebrate.
Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) research director Karl Williams said: “Today’s figures of 431,000 remain extraordinarily high by any historical measure.”
Williams added that in the four years since the Conservatives implemented reforms aimed at reducing migration, net migration has reached 2.65m – indicating a 3.9 per cent in population growth.
He also criticised the previous government for not building enough houses to keep up with the population increase.
Labour take credit, too
Dover Labour MP Mike Tapp urged voters to “ignore any Conservative’s claim of success.”
Tapp said last week’s immigration white paper announcement is “simply coming to finding those solutions for a problem that spilt out of control under the Conservatives.”
“It’s obviously that lot that oversaw record high net migration and open borders when it comes to illegal migration.” Tapp said. “They called the General Election knowing that they were doomed to failure on immigration.”
Celebrations from the Labour benches might also be premature.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request indicated that the number of hotels housing asylum seekers was higher in December than in July, when Labour took office, which have led to higher costs for the Home Office.
Qureshi said “in the year ending March 2025, around 109,000 people had claimed asylum, which is the highest number on record.”
“Moreover, it took time for the new government to ramp up asylum decision-making after the system nearly ground to a halt in the latter months of the last government (due to Rwanda and the Illegal Migration Act),” said Qureshi – but added that the backlog is being alleviated (it dropped by 13 per cent from December 2024 to March 2025).
Stopping the boats
The tie breaker could be which party can claim to have done the most to prevent illegal small boat crossings.
More in Common pollsters found that only a fifth of people in Britain were confident that the Labour Government could reduce immigration substantially, where 42 per cent said they had no confidence at all.
The biggest priority for the British voter is stopping the boats, rather than reducing legal net migration. More than three quarters of every voter group agree, except for the Green voters, of which only two thirds agree.
At Monday’s UK-EU summit, Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to work with the EU to bring illegal immigration to a halt.
Tapp pointed to the Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill that the Labour government has put forward, and which is currently being debated in the Lords.
Tapp said it “will bring in counter terror powers that are going to be vital in getting to the smuggling gangs before they commit the crimes.”