RISHI Sunak is facing a massive backlash after new stats showed net migration hit a record high of 745,000 last year.
It means Britain’s population grew by more than a city the size of Newcastle – marking a devastating blow to the PM’s pledge to curb the numbers arriving.
GettyMigration stats were revealed today to have hit a record high for last year[/caption]
Tory MP Neil O’Brien said: “Today’s extraordinary numbers mean the PM must now take immediate and massive action”.
Another backbencher fumed: “I feel numb. Such is the level of anger and despondency I feel.”
Bungling data experts drastically upgraded their previous 2022 estimate of 606,000 by a mammoth 139,000 this morning.
They said they “now have a better understanding of people’s movements over a 12-month period”.
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The only glimmer of good news for Mr Sunak is that the ONS put mid-year estimates for the 12 months to June 2023 at 672,000, representing a slight dip on the revised 745,000 figure.
The figures – containing both legal and illegal migration – show 1.2 million, while emigration was 508,000, meaning that net migration was 672,000 in the year to June.
Estimates put the population of Newcastle at around 719,000.
The PM’s pledge to bring net migration below 245,000 as promised in the party’s 2019 election manifesto now looks beyond hope.
Ministers are looking at plans to limit overseas health workers bringing more than one relative with them.
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TORY FURY
But restless Tory MPs are losing patience and are demanding bolder measures to wrestle down the numbers.
Former minister Mr O’Brien said this morning: “In every election since 1992 we have promised to reduce migration.
“Today’s extraordinary numbers mean the PM must now take immediate and massive action to do that to do just that.”
Fellow Tory MP Jonathan Gullis piled in: “These figures are completely unacceptable to the majority of the British people and we must take drastic action now to bring legal migration down, as well as stopping the boats.
“The Prime Minister and Home Secretary should look at the ideas of the New Conservatives in order to get these numbers down quickly.”
The New Conservatives group of rightwing MPs said: “Across every single category of immigration, numbers are on the rise.
“We cannot blame exceptional circumstances; this is a consistent trend. It has been caused directly by the policy decisions of this Government. And it has gone on for far too long.”
New Home Secretary James Cleverly insisted he was working to bring down the numbers.
He said this morning: “The Government remains completely committed to reducing levels of legal migration while at the same time focusing relentlessly on our priority of stopping the boats.
“A priority we are already delivering on – cutting small boats arrivals by more than one third and dramatically increasing the number of asylum applications we process. This is not only the right thing to do, but what the British public want us to do.”
He also stressed that welcoming Ukrainian and Hong Kong refugees helped push up the figures.
It comes as two migrants — a man and a woman in their thirties — drowned yesterday after a small boat packed with people capsized in French waters.
A third victim was airlifted to hospital, while 57 passengers were rescued.
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