UK net migration fell to 431,000 in 2024, down almost 50% from 2023

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cr4zzvq2p33t

by ConsciousStop

38 comments

  1. There’d be Union flags on every paper with photos of a grinning Boris Johnson/Liz Truss/Rishi Sunak (delete as appropriate) doing a thumbs up outside number 10 if this was a headline a few years ago.

    Oh dear, the Wrong Team are in power though. Let’s see how the usual suspects spin this into a loss.

  2. Looking forward to reform voters coming along and chipping in with “it’s not enough until it’s a net negative million”. At least they’ve got a plan to make Britain so unpleasant that everyone wants to leave.

  4. Just getting my popcorn ready for when people inevitably say ‘it’s not down enough!’.

    Nearly 50% drop is significant however you look at it. The Tories and Labour will both claim victory, but it doesn’t matter, down is down.

    Devil’s in the details, but interested to see old Nige’s retort to this as migration is pretty much all he has.

  5. It’s going to be four years of Starmer actually delivering on right wingers pet issues whilst continually being called a twat and not gaining a single voter.

  6. It’s interesting that Labour might actually be the ones to hit net migration in the tens of thousands.

    But aren’t these the result of Rishi’s policies ?

  8. Net migration? Does that just mean more people are leaving the country?

  9. This is likely the result of Tory policy, but given the number of traps they laid on the way out I’ll let Labour claim it.

    Wonder if Labour are aiming for an election year where we see neutral net migration as those who arrived in the Boris wave leave in great enough numbers to cancel out new arrivals – it’s not a totally unrealistic target even if ambitious and logically would totally take the wind out of Nige’s sails.

    Obviously the reality doesn’t matter and the media will find a way to spin it.

  10. In what world is bring 950k people into your country IN ONE YEAR a logical or sane thing to do? This is completely bonkers.

  11. 431,000 is still very high considering there is current a massive shortage of housing and public services are struggling.

    Why do people act like migrants are automatically absorbed into some kind of machine and it starts again every year?

    If your flat bench press is 100kg but somebody adds an extra 70kg and you struggle, so they take off 30kg and leave the 140 – you still can’t press shit. – there’s no time to get stronger.

    Also, for fuck sake stop making this a Tory/Labour thing. It’s been an ongoing thing for over 20 years, with both parties guilty

  12.  You mean all the students who started 3 year courses in 2021 have now gone home?

    What a shock. Who could have predicted this?

    The net migration figures were fucked up by covid and the byzantine way the ONS calculates them. They went negative in 2020 because the students were all sent home at once, then they reentered in 2021 but there were no balancing departures until 2024. The spike in the last three years was largely artificial and the figures are now reverting to trend.

    Pretty sure the ONS knows this but won’t admit it because it would highlight the fact their stats are basically useless.

  13. It’s a bit like inflation, when inflation falls things don’t get cheaper they just keep rising in price at a slower place. This is exactly same, our population is still growing but just at a slower pace.

  14. Well du’h.

    That was literally the plan.

    Replacement of the retirees and damage from Brexit.

    It isn’t difficult to work out how this works.

    It’ll have to go back up again in a few years as the number of people leaving the workforce skyrockets again. And the inheritance from the boomers causes younger people to leave as well as the traditional retiring population.

  15. Popped over to see how the Mail Online were covering this news: not a single mention anywhere that I could see.

  16. I genuinely get the feeling labour have finally got the message and are listening to the electorate. I can’t remember the last time a political party actually carried out the will of the people. I hope it lasts and people take notice in the next election.

  18. Funny how Labour get the credit when something good happens but blame the previous government for anything bad.

    However, this is for the whole of 2024, the Tories were in government for half that time and I don’t recall many new Labour policies around migration that were in effect for much of that year.

    So in this case I think most of the credit is due to the Tories.

  19. Important for people to realise that this decrease is largely because of the measures brought in by the Tory party, not by Labour. However the Tories are responsible for the horrific levels of immigration over the last decade, so there we go.

    Hopefully Keir can continue this trend and put in place a sensible immigration policy, where we provide visas for critical areas of industry alone.

  20. Very interesting reading the “but, but, but” comments in this thread already. I wonder what the prevailing talking point will become in the next few days… Reform will obviously need their line of attack regardless of what happens.

    They can’t argue with the facts though. It has come down massively, and new policies were announced recently to drive it down even more. It will probably be super low by the time the next election comes round. Think they’ll reveal their colours and start talking about mass deportation instead?

  21. An acceptable start but its still insanely high for the current situation. They need to keep halving it for the next 2-3 years at least to keep on track with what people want.

  22. Oh look who is actually bringing down net migration. A political Party that does not need a scape goat to distract the public from their real policies.

    Will the UK press let the public know as net migration falls under Labor? What do you think?

    No, I am pretty sure that Murdoch with continue to lie until the scum that take Russian money and run around the country shouting “FISH!” and “Small Boats” and actually need as big an immigration problem as possible to keep them in the headlines, get control of the UK and finish stealing anything that might still be worth weighing in.

  23. So… We didn’t need to demonise immigrants after all?

  24. This is a good start if it’s actually accurate. I remember a net migration number being adjusted after someone got the numbers wrong. If Labour could actually score a 250k net year, it would be really impressive. But yes, from me I would only be actually happy with sub 100k or even gold standard net zero. But this is a good start.

  25. Labour delivering on tories failed promises is the biggest irony

  26. This, along with Labour’s announced changes, makes me think they will hit their immigration targets.

    That won’t please Reform voters, still, I imagine.

  27. My house price 📈

    My slop/just eat/deliveroo order price 📉

    Thanks everyone 🙂 

  28. There’s about 130,000 vacancies in the care sector. Whose going to do these jobs? Thanks Starmer for failing to care for our elderly1

  29. I bet not many of them 517,000 are scrounging economic migrants that came here to live off the British tax payer.

  30. To play devil’s advocate, what makes up the 400k drop? If it’s 400k wealthy individuals, then it’s a bit of a disaster for the economy. If it’s 400k potential deliveroo drivers, then it’s a huge win.

  31. A reminder that net migration includes people going out so this is “migration to the UK went from 1.1 million to 900K in a year”

    It’s the right direction but it’s off by a scale of 5. We need at least 200K more people leaving per year than coming in for the next 5 years to see any benefit

  32. This needs more publicity, labour are doing a decent job with this so far, and decent is the best adjective that has been used to describe the government in decades.

  34. I’m not surprised Jenrick is unhappy with it. He probably prefer 150 million, the same amount he tried to cost the country while housing minister before parliament stepped in.

    Edit: my mistake he didn’t almost cost the country 140 million, it was 150 million.

  35. There was another thread on this topic and you had the Reform knuckle-draggers talking about how this number is still way too high, would be a record high if not for 2020-2023, and that they won’t be happy until it’s down to at least 2019 levels; which is a little odd given they voted to drag us out of the EU in 2016 on the very same issue.

    Couldn’t possibly be right-wing voters moving the goalposts, surely

  36. The coping mechanisms and narrative spins we are about to witness from people with certain political leanings, that are unable to admit when “the other side” make positive change, is going to be huge.

    Prepare for a wave of propaganda to overshadow this.

  37. What are the numbers on illegal immigration? No wonder the legal immigration is low, nobody wants to come to the UK anymore

    Edit: spelling

  38. As usual no one reads the article.

    The drop is mainly down to changes in laws the conservatives introduced, mainly blocking student dependents from coming to the UK.

    Students are not the migrants that reform and their voters particularly have a problem with.

    So long as no one actually reads the details it’s a win for labour.

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