UK politics live: Net migration to UK plummets by more than 400,000 in a year in boost to Starmer – UK Times

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has said net migration came down thanks to measures put in place by the last government.

Writing on X, he added: “But it is still far too high and needs to go down further. That is why we need a binding annual immigration cap, set by Parliament – at much, much lower levels.”

“But when we Conservatives tabled that plan, Labour voted against it last week and again yesterday.”

In a reply to his post, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “A reminder that the moment Labour got in, they SCRAPPED the tough measures we took to get these numbers down.

“Numbers are still too high, and Starmer STILL keeps voting against every plan to bring them down further.

“Only the Conservatives can fix immigration.”

Our Political Editor David Maddox reports:

Sir Keir Starmer must strike a “careful balance” between cutting migration and supporting Britain’s ailing public services, Sir Tony Blair’s old favourite think tank has warned.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said the prime minister will have to be particularly careful with further restrictions on care visas, or risk exacerbating the workforce crisis in the sector.

Director of migration, trade and communities Marley Morris said: “Net migration has fallen sharply from its post-pandemic high, easing the way considerably for the government’s efforts to bring down numbers.

“Following last week’s immigration white paper, the government will now need to carefully balance managing overall levels of migration with its ambitions to grow the economy and repair public services.”

Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper will feel buoyed by Thursday’s immigration figures – confirming net migration fell by half last year.

But the real winner from the announcement may just be James Cleverly.

The figures relate to the last year the Conservatives spent in power, and the fall in net migration is a result of measures Mr Cleverly introduced as home secretary.

After falling short in last year’s contest to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader, the figures will give Mr Cleverly a major boost among his colleagues as speculation about Kemi Badenoch’s future mounts.

It is thought she could be replaced before the next general election, and being able to claim credit for one of the few positive changes made in the dying days of the Tories’ 14 year term will do no harm to Mr Cleverly’s pitch to be the one taking over.

James Cleverly has claimed credit after net migration fell by half last year, highlighting “changes I made that Labour opposed at the time”.

The Tory former home secretary said: “of course, they will try to claim credit for these figures, but the simple truth is that they are doing less and hoping they will get better results”.

In a social media video, Mr Cleverly said: “They can’t just rely on work that the Conservatives did when we were in government, and they are failing to take action on things like illegal migration. So figures today are good news, but there’s still a lot of work to be done by this Labour Government.”

The drop in net migration is the result of changes in the number of people immigrating to (arriving) and emigrating from (leaving) the UK.

Long-term immigration in 2024 fell below one million for the first time in a calendar year since 2021, with an estimated 948,000 people coming to live in the UK in the 12 months to December, down 29% from a record 1.33 million in 2023.

At the same time, long-term emigration has risen, with 517,000 people leaving the UK in 2024, up from 466,000 in 2023.

Emigration is now close to levels seen before the pandemic.

The rise in emigration has been driven by an increase in those who originally came to the UK on study-related visas and who are now reaching the end of their courses.

The majority (61%) of non-EU+ nationals who left the UK in 2024 had originally arrived for study-related reasons.

The fall in net migration has been driven by a drop in the number of people coming to the UK to work and study, the ONS said.

There was a 49% decrease in 2024 in the number of non-EU+ nationals arriving in the UK as the main applicant on a work visa, along with a 35% fall in those coming as work dependants.

The number of non-EU+ nationals arriving as main applicants on a study visa dropped by 17%, while there was a much larger fall of 86% in study dependants.

The drop is likely to reflect changes in migration rules introduced in early 2024 by the previous Conservative government, which included restricting the ability of most international students to bring family members.

Non-EU+ nationals refers to people who are not from the European Union or from Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Estimated net migration to the UK stood at a provisional 431,000 in the year to December 2024, down 50% from 860,000 in the year to December 2023, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is the largest numerical drop on record.

The previous biggest calendar year fall was during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, when net migration dropped from 184,000 in the year ending December 2019 to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020.

Net migration is the difference between the number of people coming to live in the UK long-term and the number of people leaving to live in another country.