[gearhart]

This is true, but not the primary story here.

Illegal immigration numbers are about 50k for the period, whilst legal immigration netted out (minus emigration) at about 500k for the period, and "natural growth" (i.e. births minus deaths) are about 45k.

The story here is that we're letting in a lot more legal, non-EU immigrants than we have been previously, most of whom are coming here on work visas, or as dependents / carers.

Whether you think this is a good thing or not is worth debating, but the media narrative that we're being "overrun by illegal immigrants" simply isn't a fair representation of the facts. Immigration increases are primarily driven by policy.

Sources: - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/irregular-migration... - https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populati...

[thejohnconway]

Yes, a policy many in the Tory party like, because on net those immigrants are economically beneficial. But they can’t tell that to their base so they bang on about a small subset.