The Reform UK leader slammed Labour and the Tories over the release of Thursday’s net migrations figures, Nigel Farage called it “disastrous.”
He Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday that people moving and leaving the UK has halved, they estimate, this is largest fall in net migration since Covid.
In the year ending December 2024 the ONS figures stood at around 431,000, this is down 49.9% from 860,000 the previous year.
Director of population statistics at the ONS Mary Gregory said: “Our provisional estimates show net migration has almost halved compared with the previous year, driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study, particularly student dependants.
“This follows policy changes brought in restricting visa applications.
“There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.”
Sir Keir Starmer said, “We have returned nearly 30,000 people since the election, 12 per cent more than the last Government.
“We are taking back control of our borders. If you have no right to be in the UK, you will be removed.”
Just under two weeks ago Starmer said that net migration has created “incalculable” damage to society across the UK and this is risking Britain becoming an “island of strangers.”
Starmer faced criticism over his remarks as Labour backbenchers and the Lib Dems likened his comment to that of Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood speech.”
The Reform UK leader wrote on social media, “Net migration of over 400,000 for Labour’s first year of government.
“Not as high as the great Tory betrayal, but still disastrous.”
The former Home Secretary James Cleverly wrote on social media, “This drop is because of the visa rule changes that I put in place.
“Labour will try to claim credit for these figures but they criticised me at the time, and have failed to fully implement the changes.”
