Tory net migration pledge remains an elusive dream

Today’s immigration figures make it almost impossible for the Conservatives to honour their election pledge to bring down net migration (the difference between those entering and those leaving the UK) to the tens of thousands by May next year.

The figure has “surged” some might say, to 243,00 in the past year, an increase of 68,000, driven mostly by a rise in EU nationals attracted by Britain’s economic recovery. Yes, there’s been a rise in Bulgarians and Romanians, but they are just one small element.

Wherever Home Secretary Theresa May and her Home Office ministers have targeted tougher restrictions, immigration has emerged in other forms.

Work visas, non EU-entry, family migration have all been subject to clamp downs, but still the holy grail remains elusive.

Within today’s figures we learn that 177,000 student visas were issued in the last 12 months. Lord Heseltine recently suggested they should be removed from the overall figure.

True, this would bring net migration would be down to tens of thousands. But the public would rightly think it’s only about massaging the figures.

And what then for other government departments? They could ask for exemption too, arguing why should skilled labour, for example, be included, since it is a necessity for the economy.

The think tank IPPR says net migration has averaged out to 200,000 a year for the last 20 years, and argues that maybe communities should be educated and helped in accepting that is now the way of the world – and that zero net migration is a pipe dream.

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