LONDON-The number of immigrants in the United Kingdom from the European Union continued to increase in 2015, official statistics released Thursday showed, adding fuel to the debate in Britain over whether it should cut its ties to the bloc in a referendum next month.
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“The increase in net migration was the result of a decrease in emigration, whereas immigration was at a similar level to the previous year”, the ONS said. These figures underline that there are no quick fixes or simple solutions.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who backs the “remain” side, has long promised to reduce net migration below 100,000.
The ONS said that most of the net increase – 20,000 – was due to fewer people leaving the country.
“People rightly have concerns about immigration but the PM’s view is very clearly that wrecking the economy and destroying jobs by getting rid of our privileged access to the world’s biggest market is not the answer”, he added.
A Brexit would leave the country with a large skills gap, especially in the areas of science and engineering, Nevin said, stressing that neither supporters nor opponents of continued European Union membership have addressed the issue of post-Brexit migration rules.
“They have serious questions to answer about whether they are proposing more non-EU migration and what happens to those Britons now living and working in Europe”. The new Immigration Act will go further, tackling illegal working and making it harder than ever for illegal migrants to stay under the radar, putting an end to the permissive environment of the past.
But Home Office minister James Brokenshire said the PM’s renegotiation of the UK’s membership of the European Union would “close back-door routes” and added: “Leaving the European Union is absolutely no panacea or silver bullet”.
Estonian Marika Rudik-Mis, the farm office administrator, said: “If I just look at the number of eastern European staff on the farm, that work here, if tomorrow no one came in I don’t think they would be able to make even half the daily produce”.
“But in a speech later – his first of the referendum campaign – former Labour Home Secretary Lord Blunkett will defend the last Labour government’s controversial record on immigration and criticise those who he says want to create a “fortress Britain”. If we are right, and nobody has challenged us, net migration is actually running at almost 400,000 a year”, he pointed out. It is clear we need a migration policy fit for the 21st century.
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He insisted he had not abandoned his view that immigration brought ” great benefits” to the country but said pressure on public services had to be addressed.
