The one million mark will resonate in the nation’s mind as a symbol of establishment political failure
Kemi Badenoch mooted new ideas to help bring the numbers down – including firm caps on visas and fuller publication of migration data pledged that net migration would be reduced to “tens of thousands”. Through four general elections and a referendum, the nation has consistently voted for platforms to deliver on that promise. Today’s announcement that migration levels reached nearly one million in the year up to June 2023 must finally confirm that the party thoroughly failed to deliver.
And what about for the Conservatives? How can they win back any trust on migration given such a fundamental breach?delivered the first major speech of her leadership on Wednesday focused squarely on this question. She was right to make a straightforward apology – to acknowledge that the party “got it wrong” and must shoulder the blame for the high levels. Telling “the truth” was the centrepiece of her leadership bid and Badenoch pledged to do so thoroughly on migration from now on.
The only silver lining for the Tories is that the numbers are already falling from a record high, thanks to the reforms put in place by the ex-home secretaries James Cleverly and Suella Braverman. The 16 per cent drop inbetween October 2023 and October 2024 follows changes on bringing over family members. Yet both the student and overall numbers are still significantly higher than before the pandemic. In 2019, net migration was running at about 180,000.
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