“The only way we can enact such a policy that does not discriminate against people from outside the European Union and controls overall numbers is if we vote to leave on June 23rd”.
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He said, “National Insurance numbers can be obtained by anyone working in the United Kingdom for just a few weeks and the ONS explains clearly why the number of National Insurance registrations should not be compared with migration figures, because they measure entirely different things”.
Figures on the level of NI numbers registered to overseas nationals can include those who come to the United Kingdom for a short time before leaving, or people who have already been in the country for a long period before applying.
“They are clear that the independent International Passenger Survey remains “the best source of information for measuring” net migration, and National Insurance figures do not change that”. This compares with 421,000 NI registrations. Today, the ONS revised the decline to -1.1 percent.
Doubts over the numbers were also backed-up by contractors.
Martin Beck, senior economic advisor to the EY ITEM Club, said that while the monthly rise in manufacturing output looked encouraging, it was heavily influenced by temporary factors. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 2.5 per cent drop.
Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at TF Global Markets said: ‘One of the most prominent challenge for the United Kingdom economy right now is that it is losing its battle against growth and the country’s trade deficit has touched its highest level in almost 8 years.
“Short-term migration is highly significant, and arguably most damaging in terms of wages and work conditions”.
Brexit-backer Boris Johnson said: “What it shows is that large numbers of people are coming, they are getting NI numbers, they are availing themselves of services which are under huge pressure at the moment”.
‘Although their interactions suggest visits of a short-term nature, some of these people appear to have been in the country for longer than 12 months and so a proportion may be long-term migrants.’
The new analysis has “conclusively shown that no such cover-up has taken place”, says The Guardian, adding that the economist who uncovered the apparent gap, Jonathan Portes, had “welcomed” the ONS’s explanation.
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“IPS continues to be the best source of information for measuring long-term global migration”.
