Afternoon summary
- Boris Johnson, the Conservative MP and leading Vote Leave campaigner, has said that it was a “mistake” and “cynical” for his party to promise to get net migration below 100,000 in its election manifesto. In an interview with the BBC, he said.
I do think it was a mistake to say to people that we could control immigration, bring it down to the tens of thousands, within the EU system. We simply do not have the tools to do so ... I think it is cynical to say that we can continue to control immigration from the EU when we can’t.
Johnson, whose campaign trip to Winchester was interrupted by protesters from Britain Stronger in Europe, also said he thought Steve Hilton might be right in saying David Cameron privately favoured leaving the EU.
- Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has said Ukip MEPs would support Boris Johnson if he became prime minister. He said:
I’d love to see a Brexit prime minister, and if Boris was in that position I’d say to him ‘I lead the biggest group of British MEPs in Brussels, what can we do to help?’
- George Osborne, the chancellor, has criticised Jeremy Corbyn for proposing to put Andrew Fisher in charge of policy. According to a report in the Times, which the party has not denied, Fisher, who is seen as being on the hard left and who backed a Class War candidate at the general election, is due to become director of policy in Corbyn’s office. During the Queen’s speech debate on the economy Osborne said:
If you think they’ve learnt any lessons, here is what has happened today. The leader of the Labour party has appointed someone called Andrew Fisher as the head of policy for the Labour party. This is a man who campaigned against Labour candidates at the general election in Croydon. This is a man who took part in the student riots in 2010 and boasted about breaking through police lines, scaring the police, hurling abuse at them. And this is what his economic policy consists of - public ownership of all land in the country, nationalising all banks and returning to a three-day week. This is the man who has just become the Labour Party’s head of policy.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, used his speech to attack Osborne’s record. He told MPs:
I have to say my admiration for the Queen was immensely increased as a result of her ability to keep a straight face whilst reading this fictional drivel that’s called the Queen’s speech we have before us today. The Queen’s speech demonstrates conclusively the massive distance before the Chancellor and the real world.
The Queen’s speech opened with an extraordinary peace of doublespeak - the government apparently thinks we [have] ‘a strengthening economy’, they seemingly are not paying attention to their own statistics and their own forecasts. This is after precipitating the slowest recovery in modern British history, the chancellor is now presiding over a recovery built on sand.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Updated
Johnson says he thinks Cameron may be a secret Brexiteer
In an interview with the Times (paywall) published this morning, Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s former director of strategy, said that if Cameron were not prime minister, he would be backing Brexit. He told the paper:
If he were a member of the public, or a backbench MP or a junior minister or even a cabinet minister I’m certain that he would be for Leave. That’s his whole instinct.
That’s who he is. As prime minister he sees it from a different perspective, and that’s perfectly reasonable . . . but I think that if he didn’t have that perspective he would be for Leave. When he said, ‘I want to be the first prime minister that leaves office having given away power not taken it’, I think he meant it. He’s always been firmly Eurosceptic.
During his Winchester trip, Boris Johnson was asked about this, and he said he also thought Cameron might be a secret Brexiteer. He said:
I think there’s probably a lot of truth in that in the sense that the arguments tend that way, if I remember some of the discussions I have had over many years about the lack of democracy in the EU, that sounds to me like an accurate and fair reflection.
This sounds partly like Johnson retaliating for Cameron telling LBC on Monday that Johnson had “told a lot of people that he would never be a Leaver” before he came out in favour of Brexit.
Boris Johnson was campaigning in Winchester today. He did not have a free run, because Remain campaigners were there waiting for him.
Somebody seems to have let on that Boris is coming to Winchester for his #Brexit campaign tour pic.twitter.com/7ic6MCqIxN
— Ben Mitchell (@PABenMitchell) May 26, 2016
According to the BBC’s Peter Henley, the police are investigating two complaints of assault.
Police are investigating two complaints of assault by Leave campaigners during Boris' visit to Winchester
— Peter Henley (@BBCPeterH) May 26, 2016
The government has released house building figures for England for the first quarter of 2016 (pdf). They show that there were 35,530 housing starts, “a 3% decrease compared to the previous 3 months and 9% decrease on a year earlier.”
And there were 32,950 completions, “9% lower than the previous quarter and 3% lower than a year ago”.
John Healey, the shadow housing minister, said:
After six years of failure on housing on all fronts under the Tories, house-building needs to be increasing but these figures show that in recent months the number of homes being built has actually fallen.
Ultimately what matters to hard-pressed families is how expensive housing costs have become, and this continued failure to build the number of homes the country needs will make the housing pressures people face even worse.
The Commons defence committee was taking evidence on Syria and Iraq this morning.
According to the Press Association, Lieutenant General Mark Carleton-Smith, the director of operations at the Ministry of Defence, told the MPs that Islamist extremists aligned to al-Qaida may be plotting to use Syria as a springboard to mount a new wave of international terror attacks.
Carleton-Smith said Jabhat al Nusra was the strongest remaining al-Qaida (AQ) franchise and could have the potential to threaten UK national security.
He said the group - identified by some analysts as a more serious long-term threat than Islamic State (IS) - may be associated with an element of British foreign fighters in Syria.
While it is not currently being targeted by RAF warplanes engaged in operations against IS in Syria and Iraq, Carleton-Smith said they were ready to act if it emerged there was a “direct and imminent” threat to UK national security.
“There is a real danger that it will remain an abscess in the system,” he told the committee.
“It is probably the strongest AQ franchise globally. It has its stronghold in Idlib province. It is certainly a spoiler in the political process in Syria and it might represent a Petri dish that becomes a threat to UK national security.”
Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, also gave evidence. He announced the deployment of another RAF Airseeker surveillance aircraft to the region, said there was now “real momentum” behind the Iraqi offensive against Islamic State.
Clearly progress has been made. There is a real sense of momentum now of the Iraqi and Kurdish forces advancing. That needs to be sustained.
The United States has made very clear to the coalition that this is actually the moment to step up and they have asked all members of the coalition to look and see what more they can do.
Lunchtime summary
- Annual net migration to Britain rose to 333,000 in 2015, just 3,000 below its record peak, confirming the UK as a country of mass migration, figures from the Office for National Statistics show. Boris Johnson, the lead Brexit campaign, responded by saying the figures show a “scandalous” government failure. (See 10.17am.) And the government’s repeated inability to get net migration below 100,000, as it has promised, was “terrible for democracy”, Johnson said. (See 11am.) But Number 10 responded by challenging Vote Leave to say what they would do to deal with immigration. (See 1.41pm.) The former Labour home secretary Jacqui Smith has posed eight questions on immigration for Vote Leave to answer, but so far Vote Leave has not addressed them. (See 10.13am.)
- Johnson has rejected a claim from Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, that his comments about the EU are not “in line with reality”. (See 11.20am.)
- David Blunkett, the Labour former home secretary, has given a speech saying the EU is an essential element in countering the threat of terrorism. He said:
The meetings we held at the justice and home affairs council, at a Europe-wide level after [9/11], were illustrative of the importance of the ability to work quickly and effectively with all those who were then part of the union.
The European Arrest Warrant, the data sharing improvements, the use of biometrics and yes, improved collaboration on the wider European border all demonstrate the importance of what we call the European Union.
In simple terms, if we had not had the EU, we would, on these issues, have had to invent it.
He also suggested it may have been a mistake for Labour to have let Eastern Europeans come to the UK when their countries joined the EU without transitional controls.
Interesting, at Blunkett speech, would he change his mind allowing E Europeans to come without controls if he could? 'possibly'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 26, 2016
- David Davis, the Conservative MP and Brexit campaigner, has given a speech saying the EU has been “a destroyer of jobs”. He said:
The Remain campaign has strained every sinew in painting as relentlessly pessimistic a picture of the UK after Brexit as is possible. And in doing so, their predictions and forecasts have lost credibility.
They have claimed that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of jobs rely on our membership. The reality is that the EU has been a destroyer of jobs across the continent, and has created next to no jobs for British people in the UK in recent years.
- Unions will seek “cast iron” safeguards that any changes to the British Steel Pension Fund to save Tata’s UK plants do not lead to employers “dodging” their responsibilities. As the Press Association reports, three unions issued a joint statement warning that if the scheme has to go into the government’s Pension Protection Fund, it would be an “unmitigated disaster”, with workers and pensioners taking a cut in benefits. The government launched a consultation on changes to pensions law, including cutting the British Steel Pension Fund (BSPS) long-term liabilities by benchmarking it to the consumer price index (CPI) rather than the higher retail price index (RPI), in a move that could save £2.5bn. There are more details on our business live blog.
Updated
Pawel Swidlicki, a policy analyst at Open Europe, says that Boris Johnson is contradicting himself when he says net migration could be reduced to below 100,000, while at the same time saying immigration from outside the EU is being “unfairly” squeezed. Non-EU net migration is already at 188,000, the ONS figures today reveal.
Boris contradicts himself - how can we hit 100k by leaving EU when non-EU at 188k while being "unfairly" squeezed? pic.twitter.com/R1MjUcN8kh
— Pawel Swidlicki (@pswidlicki) May 26, 2016
James Brokenshire, the immigration minister, told BBC News that it was a mistake to think that leaving the EU would be a “silver bullet” that would solve migration problems. And he insisted that the government’s goal of getting net migration below 100,000 was still realistic.
I think that reducing net migration to the sustainable levels that existed before Labour lost control in the 1990s remains absolutely the right focus because of the pressure on public services and the speed of rate of change. That remains the intent of this government. Yes of course, I’m not going to deny that today’s figures are anything but disappointing. But to suggest that somehow leaving Europe is a silver bullet ... it certainly isn’t.
No 10 challenges Vote Leave to say what it would do about immigration
Number 10 has challenged the Vote Leave campaign to say what it would do about migration if Britain voted to quit the EU. A Downing Street spokesman said:
Of course people rightly have concerns on 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.
Our new special status in Europe now means that EU citizens will now have to put something in before they get something out in welfare.
And we don’t know what would happen to migration if we were to leave the EU. Those who want to leave are telling one group of people that they will cut migration while telling other groups that they will keep freedom of movement or increase visas.
That final sentence is a reference to suggestions from Leave campaigners that being out of the EU could result in more skilled workers being accepted from Commonwealth countries.
Brexit campaigners continue to win the funding battle in the EU referendum war, the Press Association reports.
Groups backing a Leave vote raked in almost two-and-a-half times as much between April 22 and May 12 according to donation and loan declarations published by the Electoral Commission.
Vote Leave Limited - the designated lead campaigner - raised £3.35m of the £3,781,343 given to registered anti-EU bodies.
Their formal rival Britain Stronger in Europe - formally known as The In Campaign Ltd - attracted £1,044,476 of the £1,573,402 added to the coffers of the pro-Brussels camp.
It takes the total donated to referendum campaigns to £20,993,848 since February 1 - with a further £6,093,940 in borrowing.
Here is Jacqui Smith, the Labour former home secretary, on the immigration figures.
The latest figures show over 250,000 EU nationals work in our public services, so let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. We can have a fair immigration system, where those who work hard and pay their taxes are welcome, without trashing our economy.
Vote Leave know they have lost the argument on the economy, which is why they are dancing to Nigel Farage’s tune and focusing elsewhere. They have serious questions to answer about whether they are proposing more non-EU migration and what happens to those Britons currently living and working in Europe.
Boris Johnson is campaigning in Winchester.
Boris Johnson is in their somewhere! pic.twitter.com/q9FqI6JxqL
— Peter Henley (@BBCPeterH) May 26, 2016
Brexit 'could mean break-up for 1 in 10 London couples', Greens claim
The Greens have won the prize for today’s most outlandish EU referendum headline. Sian Berry, the Green London assembly member, sent out a press release headed:
Brexit could mean break-up for 1 in 10 London couples
She quotes figures showing there are around 100,000 couple families in London where a Briton is in partnership with another EU citizen who is not British.
She says:
The reality is that a vote to leave will cause a lot of uncertainty for Londoners and many who are in mixed partnerships will worry about new rules on the leave to remain. European citizens are intricately woven into Londoners’ daily lives – as a large number of our citizens but also our friends, colleagues and very often life partners.
We’ve heard a lot about the economic and political arguments for the EU, but it is time to also think about the individual emotional consequences leaving the EU will have on a very large number of our citizens.
New rules mean non-EU nationals who want a visa to remain in the UK must be earning at least £35,000. Berry claims it is “likely” this rule would be applied to EU nationals if the UK were to vote to leave the EU.
UPDATE: Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future thinktank, thinks the Greens should be more responsible.
@AndrewSparrow This isn't a credible claim: Greens should support broad consensus call to protect EU migrants in UK https://t.co/75EjCb2Ndb
— Sunder Katwala (@sundersays) May 26, 2016
@AndrewSparrow Leave campaigners clearly support migrants staying https://t.co/gtFjkC9yXu Pro-remain voices should be clear they would too.
— Sunder Katwala (@sundersays) May 26, 2016
Updated
And this is from London First, a business group, on the immigration figures.
Business is worried that the anti-immigration rhetoric in recent weeks will encourage the government to pursue even stronger anti-immigration policies after the referendum. This would not be in the interests of London, which thrives exactly because it is a global city.
Labour has launched a campaign highlighting the changes it wants to see to the investigatory powers bill. Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, has identified five issues that he believes need to be addressed. He said:
The government has clearly been listening to our concerns and we are grateful for that. But the truth is they haven’t gone far enough to create a bill with strong privacy safeguards and human rights protections.
Unless there is significant movement by the government in the coming days, we will table strong amendments in the remaining five areas of concern.
Institute of Directors criticises 'overblown rhetoric' on immigration
The Institute of Directors has criticised the quality of public debate on immigration. In a statement Seamus Nevin, its head of employment and skills, said:
Despite the overblown rhetoric that today’s figures have sparked, the actual numbers have not changed much in the last year.
It is important to take a step back and remind ourselves immigration is a much broader question than just the EU referendum. If Britain voted for Brexit, there would still be a big skills gap, especially in areas which require science, maths or engineering degrees, where we just don’t have enough UK graduates. Neither side of the referendum debate has adequately addressed the question of what the migration rules should look like after 23 June.
It is clear we need a migration policy fit for the 21st Century. That IoD has called for a comprehensive immigration review to allow for clear headed thinking on future migration policy and to examine this issue, in all its complexity, away from the separate issue that is the EU debate.
SNP's John Nicolson tops private members' bills ballot
The SNP MP John Nicolson has come top in the private members’ bills ballot. The full results of the ballot are here. The 20 MPs will get the chance to introduce a private member’s bill, but only the top seven will get a full Friday set aside for debate, giving them a reasonable chance of getting their legislation passed second reading.
At the G7 summit in Japan Donald Tusk, president of the European council, has also been tweeting.
G7 needs to be tough in defending common values. Questioned by states outside but also by opponents from within pic.twitter.com/UBoQsk7seq
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) May 26, 2016
There has been speculation that this tweet too could be aimed at Boris Johnson, although it seems much more likely that Tusk was primarily thinking of Donald Trump.
NHS leaders think Brexit would be bad for the NHS, poll suggests
Three-quarters of NHS leaders believe leaving the EU would have a negative impact on the health service as a whole, a poll reveals. According to the Press Association, the survey of 45 NHS Trust chairmen and chief executives, carried out by NHS Providers, also found not one felt leaving the EU would have a very positive impact.
Eight out of 10 leaders said leaving the EU would have a negative impact on NHS trusts’ efforts to recruit health staff.
Almost two-thirds (65%) felt that leaving the EU would have a negative impact on access to shared learning, research and knowledge from medical trials, while 80% predicted a negative impact on access to funding for research and innovation.
Khan says Operation Black Vote poster 'reinforces stereotypes'
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has joined those criticising the Operation Black Vote EU referendum poster. He said:
My concern is it just reinforces stereotypes. Lots and lots of Londoners, some of my best friends who are white, don’t behave that way. I’ve got aunties and friends who are Asian and they don’t seem scared. I’m not sure what their motivation is with those particular images.
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has already called the poster “disgusting” and an example of “sectarian politics”.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants says today’s migration figures should not be taken out of context. In a statement Chai Patel, its legal and policy director, said:
With only four weeks to go until the EU referendum, the toxic rhetoric surrounding migrants continues to rear its ugly head. Individual numbers, when taken in isolation, are poorly placed to show the positive impact that migration has had on the UK. Research published this week by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research shows that lower migration has an overall negative effect on the UK economy.
Catholics much more pro-EU than Protestants, Northern Ireland poll suggests
A majority of voters in Northern Ireland believe the UK would be in a weaker position if it left the EU, the first major survey of opinion on Brexit in the region has found.
Up to 44% of people in the province feel Northern Ireland and Britain would be worse off if there is a Brexit vote on 23 June.
The sample of 1,000 voters surveyed for Ipsos Mori and the Belfast Telegraph found that only 20% feel the UK would be better off outside of the EU.
However, the opinion poll found that at least a third of voters in Northern Ireland remain undecided on what way to vote next month.
Catholic voters appear to be more pro-European with 56% believing Brexit would leave the UK in a worse position. Among Protestant voters 36% were concerned that exiting the EU would result in the UK being worse off.
Both main nationalist parties, Sinn Fein and the SDLP, are strongly in favour of a remain vote. However unionism is divided with the Democratic Unionist Party supporting a Brexit vote while the Ulster Unionists are in favour of staying inside the EU.
Updated
The Department for Business has now published its written statement on Tata pensions.
There will be a consultation running until 23 June - which, conveniently, is the date of rather important referendum. (Ministers fear that, if the Tata sale were to collapse before the referendum, support for Leave in south Wales could soar.)
My colleague Graeme Wearden will be covering further developments on this on his business live blog.
Here is John Mills, chair of Labour Leave, on the migration figures.
The ONS’ latest projections for immigration to England are a big concern for a lot of working people. England is already one of the most crowded countries in the world.
Rising levels of migration will continue to put strains on our public services, our NHS provision, our GPs, our housing levels, our school places, as well as increasing congestion on our roads and transport systems, and holding down wage levels.
Additionally, the pace of cultural change can be quite destabilising to people’s sense of place and home. These are structural issues, they have nothing to do with migrants as people, the vast majority of whom are honest and hard-working. If we remain in the EU, there is really nothing we can do to control immigration from the continent, and no one knows how many new countries will be joining.
Johnson hits back at Juncker
Here are some more lines from Boris Johnson’s Sky News interview earlier.
- Johnson said that the UK population would reach 80m “very shortly”.
At the current rate of fire the population of this country is going to go up to 70 or 80 million very shortly. That is a change, a massive change in our lives that I don’t think the people of this country have bargained for.
Johnson is correct, but only if you adopt a particular elastic definition of “very shortly”. According to the ONS, it will take 11 years for the population to reach 70m. After 25 years it is expected to reach 74m.
- He claimed that it was possible to get net migration below 100,000. Asked if it could be brought down to the tens of thousands if Britain left the EU, he replied:
I think it certainly is possible, in the sense that you would take back control. At the moment what is happening is that the government is pushing down very unfairly on, say, talented engineers from India, or paramedics from Australia, and has absolutely no control over huge numbers coming from the EU 28. We would be able to decide our immigration policy on the needs of the British economy.
- He rejected Jean-Claude Juncker’s claim that his comments about the EU were not “in line with reality”. (See 9.24am.) Asked about this, he said:
I’m afraid what I’m saying to the British people is in line with reality. And if we vote to Remain, which I sincerely hope that we don’t on June 23rd, then they will go on with measures to take us further into a federal European superstate, the whole exercise in Brussels is now aimed at propping up the euro. That is the entire mission of the European Union, they will try to create a fiscal union, a political union. Germany who is effectively the paymaster of this whole enterprise will want to insist that there is an economic governance of Europe that in my view will eventually become profoundly, it’s already, profoundly anti-democratic.
Sadly, Johnson was not asked about Juncker’s chief of staff saying having Johnson as prime minister would be a “horror scenario”.
Updated
Boris Johnson says government's inability to control migration 'terrible for democracy'
Vote Leave has taken the unusual step of issuing a lengthy statement from Boris Johnson about today’s migration figures. You can read it in full here.
Here are the key points.
- Johnson says migration will “continue to get worse” if the UK stays in the EU.
If you vote IN on 23 June, you are kissing goodbye permanently to control of immigration. You are voting for the current situation not only to continue but to get worse. You are voting for the European Court to be in charge of immigration and asylum policy permanently. You are giving away any chance of democratic legitimacy for immigration policy.
The only way to take back control of immigration is to Vote Leave on 23 June. The public should be able to vote for those who make the laws of this country including on immigration. It is intolerable to continue without democratic consent for Britain’s immigration policy.
- He says 1.25m EU migrants have come to the UK since 2004.
Last year, 270,000 people came to this country from the EU and net migration was 184,000. That means we are adding a population the size of Oxford to the UK every year just from EU migration.
Since 2004, 1.25 million people have been added to the population due to EU migration. That is bigger than the city of Birmingham.
- He says that he personally is “pro-immigration, but pro controlled immigration”.
- He says it is “literally impossible” to control immigration if the UK stays in the EU.
- He says the inability of the government to control immigration is “terrible for our democracy”.
Worst of all, it is terrible for our democracy. People have watched Prime Minister after Prime Minister make promises on immigration that cannot be met because of the EU and this has deeply damaged faith in our democratic system.
It is worth noting that Johnson’s long statement does not really address any of the eight questions on immigration that Jacqui Smith has posed for the Leave campaign.
Farage claims true migration figures are 'much higher'
And here is Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, on the migration figures.
Mass immigration still hopelessly out of control and set to get worse if we Remain in EU. https://t.co/rUDcFLodcY
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 26, 2016
I don't believe these official figures and I'm sure the real numbers are much higher. We must Leave EU and control our borders. #Brexit
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 26, 2016
Khan says leaving EU would be betrayal of British values
Leaving the EU would be a betrayal of British values and send a message to the world that we want to stand alone, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has said.
He said the choice facing Britain was not just about the financial consequences of leaving but about the kind of country the UK wants to be. It was “quintessentially British” and part of our “values, our character, and our open and outward facing nature that we can’t help but embrace our European neighbours,” he said.
The Leave campaign thinks it has a “monopoly on patriotism” as it pitches a nostalgic vision of Britain being able to rule itself again, but the “true patriotic case” is to remain, Khan added.
He said it was the right thing for our “heart as well as for our head”.
In his speech in central London, Khan made clear he was separating his arguments from those of David Cameron and Conservative remain campaigners, who have been issuing dire warnings about the consequences of leaving.
He said Britain would survive outside the EU but it would be a weaker place.
Here is Steven Woolfe, Ukip’s migration spokesman, on the ONS figures.
Migration numbers show no indication of coming down anytime soon. Another failure 5 years in a row on govt's pledge. #BorderlessBritain
— Steven Woolfe MEP (@Steven_Woolfe) May 26, 2016
Staggering employment figs of EU nationals living in the UK was 2.1 million in Jan to Mar 16, 224,000 higher than the same quarter last year
— Steven Woolfe MEP (@Steven_Woolfe) May 26, 2016
As ONS have said, these figures do not count short term migrants per year. Look at NI registrations for true account of migration into UK.
— Steven Woolfe MEP (@Steven_Woolfe) May 26, 2016
Britain needs a fair, compassionate & managed migration policy that suits our economy and helps to guarantee our national security.
— Steven Woolfe MEP (@Steven_Woolfe) May 26, 2016
Migration numbers prove we have no control. This is not a system fit for 21st century which benefits our economy, society and communities.
— Steven Woolfe MEP (@Steven_Woolfe) May 26, 2016
James McGrory, chief spokesman for Britain Stronger in Europe, says the Leave campaign has to be able to answer the questions posed by Jacqui Smith because immigration is their key issue.
The eight key questions the Leave campaigns have to answer on immigration, which is the only card they have:https://t.co/8hDO1cX3XJ
— James McGrory (@JamesMcGrory) May 26, 2016
Boris Johnson says migration figures are 'scandalous'
This is what Boris Johnson told Sky News about the migration figures being “scandalous”.
What is so scandalous about the figures today is that they show the failure of the government, and indeed of several departments of state - the Home Office, Number 10, the Treasury have all said that we would be able to bring these numbers down to the tens of thousands. That has not proved possible.
I’m in favour of immigration. I’m in favour of the benefits it brings to our society. But I have to say that what is happening at the moment is being done completely without the consent of the British people.
Jacqui Smith, the former Labour home secretary, has written an article about immigration for the Guardian. In it, she poses eight questions for the Leave camp to answer on this topic.
She also describes Boris Johnson as “Nigel Farage in a blonde wig”.
The outgoing mayor of London – a man elected twice by the most cosmopolitan city on earth – has begun to resemble Nigel Farage in a blonde wig: wheeled out to cheerfully demonise Johnny Foreigner as his campaign desperately plumbs the depths. Boris Johnson is having a bad referendum and is now reduced to dancing to the Ukip tune. It’s a far cry from the early, lofty talk of sovereignty, Britain’s place in the world and the grand sweep of history.
This chart in the ONS report illustrates longterm migration trends very well.
Here is my colleague Alan Travis’s story about the migration figures.
And here is how it starts.
Annual net migration to Britain rose to 333,000 in 2015, just 3,000 below its record peak, and confirming the UK as a country of mass migration, the figures from the Office of National Statistics show.
The near-record net migration figure was 20,000 higher than the 2014 figure and the ONS said the difference was driven by a 14,000 fall in the number of British citizens emigrating to live abroad.
Boris Johnson, the lead figure in the Vote Leave campaign, has just told Sky News that the immigration figures are “scandalous”.
I will post the quotes shortly.
Updated
Migration figures - Summary
Here are some key points from the ONS net migration figures.
- Net longterm migration hit 333,000 in the year to December 2015 - the second high figure on record. But the ONS said the increase was “not statistically significant”.
- The increase was caused by a reduction the number of people leaving. “The decrease in emigration has been driven by a fall in the number of British citizens emigrating (down 14,000; not statistically significant),” the ONS says.
- Immigration from EU citizens has increased. “Net migration of EU citizens was estimated to be 184,000 (compared with 174,000 in YE December 2014; change not statistically significant),” the ONS says.
- Immigration from Bulgaria and Romania (the so-called EU2) rose significantly.
Of all EU2 citizens who came to the UK in YE December 2015, 52,000 (84%) came for work-related reasons, a statistically significant increase of 17,000 from YE December 2014. Of these, 60% (31,000) arrived with a definite job to go to, a statistically significant increase of 17,000 from YE December 2014.
- Foreign nationals account for half of the increase in employment in the last year.
Latest employment statistics from the Labour Force Survey show the estimated employment level of EU nationals (excluding British) living in the UK was 2.1 million in January to March 2016, 224,000 higher than the same quarter last year. British nationals in employment increased by 185,000 to 28.2 million and non-EU nationals in employment increased by 5,000 to 1.2 million. Over half of the growth in employment over the last year was accounted for by foreign nationals. (These growth figures represent the NET change in the number of people in employment, not the proportion of new jobs that have been filled by non-UK workers.)
- Asylum applications are up 30%.
There were 41,563 asylum applications (including dependants) in YE March 2016, an increase of 30% compared with the previous year (32,036). This is the fifth successive year in which asylum applications have risen, although the number of applications is low relative to the peak in 2002 (103,081).
The largest number of applications for asylum, including dependants, came from nationals of Iran (4,811; +2,324), followed by Pakistan (3,511; -1), Iraq (3,374; +2,367), Eritrea (3,340; -270) and Afghanistan (3,133; +1,423). There were 2,235 (+680) Syrian nationals granted asylum or an alternative form of protection in the YE March 2016 and a further 1,667 Syrian nationals granted humanitarian protection under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.
Here is Glen Watson, deputy national statistician for population and public policy, commenting on the migration figures.
Today’s figures on net long-term migration are not very different to those published last quarter.
We have also published our annual figures on short-term migration, which covers a number of definitions of a short-term migrant.
Under the UN definition of a short-term migrant, someone who visits for 3 to 12 months for the purposes of work or study, there were 165,000 immigrants to England & Wales and 44,000 emigrants in the year ending June 2014.
Using the broadest definition of a short-term migrant, someone who visits for 1 to 12 months for any reason, there were 1.2m immigrants to England & Wales in the year ending June 2014, roughly half the level of the short-term emigration of 2.4m over the same period. Both figures include a large proportion of visits under 3 months and a large proportion of visits to see family or friends and holidays.
These figures are useful for giving a detailed picture of UK migration trends, but simply adding together long-term and short-term migration figures does not give a reliable estimate of overall migration.
We are confident the international passenger survey remains the best available way of measuring long-term migration to the UK.
These are from my colleague Alan Travis.
Net migration to Britain was 333,000 in 2015 - up 20,000 on 2014 and 10,000 higher than previous quarter fuelled by fall in emigration - ONS
— Alan Travis (@alantravis40) May 26, 2016
There were 420,000 Brits working abroad as short-term emigrants in year to June 2014 compared with 241,000 short-term migrants in UK - ONS
— Alan Travis (@alantravis40) May 26, 2016
Net migration rises by 20,000 to 3330,000
The migration figures are out.
Here is the full Office for National Statistics release.
And here is an excerpt.
In the year ending (YE) December 2015:
- Net Long-Term International Migration = +333,000 (up 20,000 from YE December 2014; not statistically significant)
- Immigration = 630,000 (down 2,000 from YE December 2014; not statistically significant)
- Emigration = 297,000 (down 22,000 from YE December 2014 ; not statistically significant)
Updated
Having Boris Johnson as PM would be 'horror scenario', says top EU official
Here are the key things that have been said about Boris Johnson at the G7 summit in Japan.
- An aide to Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, has said that having Boris Johnson as British prime minister would be a “horror scenario”. As Anushka Asthana reports, tweeting from the G7 summit, Martin Selmayr, who is chief of staff to Juncker, lumped Johnson in with France’s Marine Le Pen and the US presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
#G7 2017 with Trump, Le Pen, Boris Johnson, Beppe Grillo? A horror scenario that shows well why it is worth fighting populism. #withJuncker
— Martin Selmayr (@MartinSelmayr) May 26, 2016
- Juncker himself has said that some of Johnson’s comments about the EU are not “in line with reality”. At a G7 press conference he said:
I’m reading in (the) papers that Boris Johnson spent part of his life in Brussels. It’s time for him to come back to Brussels, in order to check in Brussels if everything he’s telling British people is in line with reality.
Asked about the comments, a Downing Street source said:
Our view on Boris is that we think that he is wrong, we don’t agree with him. So far neither the out campaign nor Boris Johnson have been able to articulate what getting out of the EU looks like.
There is further coverage of the G7 summit on our separate live blog.
Here is the business in the Commons this morning.
UQ at 10.30am - Ian Blackford on the impending deportation of the Brain family from Dingwall. Then Business Qus followed by Steel Statement
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) May 26, 2016
This is the statement Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, put out last night when news emerged of the government’s plans to change pensions law to help facilitate the sale of Tata. He said:
Dealing with the Tata pension scheme must be a central part of any government package to save our steel industry, so it will be totally inappropriate for ministers to rush out this vital announcement, in a written statement without any scrutiny on the final day before a recess.
Steel workers’ pensions must be protected, they’ve earned them with hard graft over many years. So if ministers are considering measures which might see those pensions reduced, MPs from all parties, especially those representing steel communities, will want a chance to question the plans, along with the trade unions who are playing such a vital and impressive role standing up for Tata workers.
If these reports are accurate, the secretary of state for work and pensions should come to the House to explain precisely what is being proposed, including how current and future steel pensioners will be affected and what precedents might be set by any changes to hard won pension protection legislation.
Today the government is going to announce proposals to change pensions law in a bid to help facilitate the sale of Tata’s UK steel-making plants. At the moment one of the big obstacles to a sale is the fact that Tata is responsible for the British Steel pension scheme, worth around £15bn, which has a deficit worth £485m. Under the plan these pensions would be indexed to the consumer price index (CPI) rate of inflation, not the retail price index (RPI), reducing payments over time.
Here is our story about the plan.
But Steve Webb, the former Lib Dem MP and pensions minister in the coalition government, says that this would be setting a precedent that could put many other pensions at risk. He told the Today programme.
Nobody doubts the government’s motives, and nobody doesn’t want to try and save steel jobs. The worry is the knock-on effect of what looks like rushed legislation. This is a complex area, the system of protecting pensions has build up over many years, and if someone does something with the best of intentions to try and tackle a short-term crisis, the danger is that this doesn’t just affect one pension, it affects many, it affects hundreds of thousands of people. And once you break the principle that the pension right you’ve built up is yours, it’s sacrosanct, then that changes the fundamental nature of what we do, and could have ripple effects the government has not even thought about ...
The pensions of millions of workers and pensioners depend on employers honouring the pension promises that they have made. A deal on Tata must not create a precedent or a loophole which could be exploited by firms keen to walk away from their pension liabilities. Ministers must tread with extreme caution in this area.
The Department for Business is due to release a written statement on this later in the day, but it would be surprising if we don’t end up getting a minister at the despatch box later, either giving an oral statement on this, or responding to an urgent question.
I will be covering more on this as the story develops.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: The Commons holds the ballot for private members’ bills.
9.30am: Immigration figures are published.
9.30am: Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, gives a speech on the EU.
10.30am: The Conservative MP David Davis gives a speech on the EU.
10.30am: Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, gives evidence to the Commons defence committee on Iraq and Syria.
11.30am: Lord Blunkett, the Labour former home secretary, gives a speech on the security benefits of staying in the EU.
1pm: Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, campaigns in Newcastle.
David Cameron is at the G7 summit in Japan, and my colleague Claire Phipps has been covering developments there on a separate live blog. Boris Johnson will be pleased to hear that, at a meeting of the leaders of the free world, his name kept cropping up. An aide to Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, said having Johnson as prime minister would be a “horror scenario”.
As usual, I will be covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.
If you think there are any voices that I’m leaving out, particularly political figures or organisations giving alternative views of the stories I’m covering, do please flag them up below the line (include “Andrew” in the post). I can’t promise to include everything, but I do try to be open to as wide a range of perspectives as possible.
