← Back to House of Commons Debates
Net Migration Figures
28 November 2023
Lead MP
Robert Jenrick
Debate Type
Ministerial Statement
Tags
ImmigrationHousingEmployment
Other Contributors: 30
At a Glance
Robert Jenrick raised concerns about net migration figures in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Government Statement
The most recent published data from the Office for National Statistics estimated that net migration in the year to June 2023 was at 672,000. The minister highlighted this as placing significant pressure on housing supply and public services, making successful integration virtually impossible. He emphasised the government's commitment to reducing legal migration in line with manifesto commitments from the 2019 election. To address rising student dependants, beginning January courses, students on taught postgraduate courses will no longer have the ability to bring dependants; only those on designated research programmes can do so. The minister also mentioned ongoing investigations into sectors suspected of breaching immigration rules and indicated further substantive measures would be announced in due course.
Yvette Cooper
Lab
Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley
Question
Where is the Home Secretary? Net migration figures are now three times their level at the 2019 election. The immigration system needs to be properly controlled and managed so that it is fair, effective, and linked to the economy.
Minister reply
I listened to the right hon. Lady for five minutes or so and detected absolutely no trace of a plan from her.
Question
My right hon. Friend has my full support in taking this issue seriously. At the weekend, the Prime Minister said that migration was “too high” and needs to come down to more sustainable levels. Are Cabinet members who sit with my right hon. Friend full-fat, semi-skimmed or skimmed?
Minister reply
I support my hon. Friend in his lobbying and campaigning for the Government to take this issue seriously.
Question
On behalf of the SNP, I thank those people who have come to make their home here and contribute to our universities, public services and health and care sector. Have the Government thought this through? Who will carry out the vital tasks if they pull up the drawbridge?
Minister reply
Fortunately, immigration is a reserved matter, and we do not intend to leave it in the hands of the hon. Lady and her colleagues in the SNP Government.
Tim Loughton
Con
East Worthing and Shoreham
Question
The figures are unsustainably high, but to put them in context, they also include 200,000 Ukrainians and 150,000 Hong Kong citizens. I wonder if those are included in the “something must be done-ism” from the Opposition. Can my right hon. Friend explain why 135,000 visas were granted to dependants last year, up from 19,000 just three years ago, and around 100,000 visas were granted to Chinese students, up 87% over the past 10 years? He mentioned care worker scandals and the 78,000 visas to care workers. Is it true that some visas have been granted to care workers to work in care homes that do not exist?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend raises a number of issues, all of which are worthy of consideration and which the Home Office is working through at present. It is certainly true that a very substantial number of dependants have come to the UK alongside visa holders, whether students, care workers or skilled workers. There is a strong argument that it is unsustainable for the country to continue to take so many dependants who put pressure on housing, public services, school places and so on.
Diana R. Johnson
Lab
Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham
Question
Although today we are discussing one single set of net migration figures, we know that net migration has hugely varying impacts in regions and communities. We also know that the most skilled migrants flow disproportionately towards London and the south-east. Has the Minister given any thought to developing a more regionalised approach to immigration, to ensure that communities across the country benefit evenly and fairly from it?
Minister reply
In recent years we have given thought to the concept of creating a more regional system, but it is difficult to create in practice. As a general rule, we have maintained one single United Kingdom immigration system, but there are a number of visa categories that reflect particular issues facing different parts of the country.
John Hayes
Con
South Holland and The Deepings
Question
Does the Minister recognise that many myths about immigration are perpetuated by the unholy alliance of greedy globalist corporate businesses and guilt-ridden bourgeois liberals? One of them is that immigrants bring only economic benefit and no cost. In practice, dependants of the kind he described bring more economic costs than benefits, so will the Minister immediately introduce measures to restrict the number of dependants who can come here?
Minister reply
My right hon. Friend and I are at one on this issue. He is right to say that there are two challenges: the sheer number of people coming in, and the types of people coming into our country. It is right that we make careful judgments about who will benefit our citizens and who will add to our country’s economy and skills base.
Clive Betts
Lab
Sheffield South East
Question
The Government had a commitment in 2019 to deal with immigration. I have a simple question: why has it taken four years for them to recognise that they need a plan? Social care relies on workers from abroad, because there is no strategy in place for workforce, training or funding.
Minister reply
First, I would say politely to the hon. Gentleman that it is only because we left the European Union that we have the levers at our disposal to control net migration.
Lee Anderson
Reform
Ashfield
Question
People in Ashfield have had enough of this. There are 7,000 people on the council house waiting list. People are struggling to get a GP or dental appointment and are struggling to get school places. Is it not about time that we had a cap on migration?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend speaks for my constituents as well as his—in saying that the British public want us to get on with the job and bring down the numbers coming into the country.
Alistair Carmichael
Lib Dem
Orkney and Shetland
Question
Instead of sitting in Whitehall and trying to persuade people that this is some sort of threat to them, why does the Minister not get out and talk to the businesses in communities such as mine that are crippled by labour shortages? He first promised me a meeting to talk about the issue of visas for deck hands in the fishing industry.
Minister reply
The right hon. Gentleman obviously missed our announcement earlier in the year where we added various fishing occupations to the shortage occupation list.
Edward Leigh
Con
Gainsborough
Question
The Minister will know that some of us have been banging on about this ever since he took office, saying that we should increase the level of work visas to average UK earnings. We have not done that because Ministers are worried that the care home sector will fall over.
Minister reply
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend and agree with everything he says. It is absolutely critical that we get a handle on this issue.
Seema Malhotra
Lab Co-op
Feltham and Heston
Question
The increase in net migration has been fuelled by an increase in health and care visas last year of around 150%. I want to bring the Minister back to the central question. I am sure he shares Labour’s ambition to upskill the workforce here, but the central question is why the funding for the new social care workforce pathway was halved earlier this year.
Minister reply
As I said in answer to an earlier question, we have set out a social care plan. The Chancellor and the Health Secretary set out a long-term plan for the NHS workforce more generally.
Question
Does the Minister agree that Labour Members' recent stance on controlled migration is opportunistic and does not reflect their past positions supporting open borders?
Minister reply
The Minister responded by criticising the opposition's change in stance, stating it was a conversion away from their previous support for freedom of movement.
Question
Should international students be excluded from net migration numbers to better align with competitors like the United States?
Minister reply
The Minister rejected the idea, emphasising the need for universities to focus on education rather than promoting short courses as a backdoor to long-term residency.
Caroline Johnson
Con
Sleaford and North Hykeham
Question
Will the Government publish its plan before Christmas and include salary threshold increases?
Minister reply
The Minister confirmed that a substantive package of reforms will be introduced soon, aligned with the Prime Minister's and Home Secretary's goals.
Dwyfor Meirionnydd
Question
Are high visa fees preventing healthcare professionals from filling critical positions in hospitals?
Minister reply
The Minister emphasised the need to train more nurses in the UK, rather than relying on international recruitment.
Julian Lewis
Con
New Forest East
Question
Can the Government control immigration from communist China to address security concerns?
Minister reply
The Minister acknowledged that they have the ability to make determinations based on national security, though no current system discriminates by nationality.
Kim Johnson
Lab
Liverpool Riverside
Question
Why does the Home Office not disclose profit margins for asylum seeker accommodation providers and why should unemployment rights be lifted?
Minister reply
The Minister offered an open offer to local authorities willing to provide asylum accommodation but suggested stopping boats as the sustainable solution.
Question
Do care worker visas displace British workers and hinder improvements in pay and conditions?
Minister reply
The Minister agreed that higher pay, better conditions, and improved productivity are necessary to sustain the workforce without reliance on foreign labour.
Question
Why should the public believe the Government will deliver on reducing net migration after 13 years of broken promises?
Minister reply
The Minister stated that fundamental reforms are being developed to address the issue, and he hopes for a package announcement soon.
North Cotswolds
Question
When can constituents expect to see a drop in migration numbers?
Minister reply
The Minister indicated that figures are starting to fall and emphasised the need for fundamental reforms to address public service pressures.
Question
Does the Minister regret the impact of fearmongering on communities and should he welcome those contributing to society?
Minister reply
The Minister defended his stance as reflecting public views that migration levels are too high, rejecting accusations of fearmongering.
Alec Shelbrooke
Con
Wetherby and Easingwold
Question
My right hon. Friend is working on many policies to try to solve the problem, but he will be aware that the performance of the Home Office in processing all kinds of applications has been chronically poor. Can he update us on the actions that are being taken, and on the direction in which he hopes efficiencies may be moving when it comes to processing the policies that he wants to put in place?
Minister reply
On that front, I can give my right hon. Friend good news. The visa service and the Passport Office are performing well, meeting their service standards in almost every respect. In asylum case working system, there has been a complete transformation over the last 12 months with decisions made increasing from 400 to about 4,000 per week today.
Question
Can the Minister explain to the musicians in Glasgow North who can no longer afford to travel to Europe, the academics in Glasgow North who have lost so many opportunities to collaborate across borders, and the hospitality and care sector venues that are crying out for staff why he thinks that the end of freedom of movement has been such a good thing?
Minister reply
If the hon. Gentleman is arguing for higher levels of net migration than we see today, I suspect that he is a lone voice in the country. We are seeing substantial numbers of people coming into the UK, in all visa categories, and we want to take action to bring those numbers down.
Question
Can my right hon. Friend and perhaps the Home Secretary, who is present, tell me whether they share my concern about the fact that an increasing amount of questionable European Court of Human Rights case law, via judgments, is actually being drafted by foreign non-governmental organisations—unaccountable—and foreign judges—often unqualified—many of whom have close links with NGOs? I should like an answer to this, please.
Minister reply
We are very concerned about some of the issues that have arisen out of the Court in Strasbourg, including so-called pyjama injunctions. That is why we are working on a package of reform and the first proposals in that regard have now been mooted.
Mark Pritchard
Con
The Wrekin
Question
Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Chad: five coups in three years in sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel. What more can the Government do to work across Government in order to reduce the number of failing states becoming a situation in which Islamic State, the Wagner Group and other terrorist organisations use push factors and illegal migration into Europe as a weapon of war?
Minister reply
My right hon. Friend raises an important point. There is some evidence that hostile states are using migration as a weapon against countries such as the United Kingdom. That is why we want to be a strategic partner to those countries, using our diplomacy and overseas development aid budget to support refugee-producing and transit countries.
Question
It is quite clear that my right hon. Friend gets it on net migration. It is a shame that many people do not get it. In 2019, I stood on a manifesto when net migration was around 220,000 and I promised my constituents that it would come down. Last year the figure was 740,000. This year it was 650,000. This is a truly shocking state of affairs. The disconnect between where most of the public are on migration and the reality is growing and growing. Does the Minister agree that this growth in the disconnect has become an affront to our shared democracy and that urgent, radical action is needed now?
Minister reply
I agree with my hon. Friend that for 30 years the public have voted in general elections to reduce the levels of net migration, and it is important that we act upon that. That is why the Home Secretary, the Prime Minister and I are working on a package of fundamental reforms.
Question
I would like to thank the Minister for all the hard work he has done while he has been in his place, because I know how much he has done and how he has worked with colleagues here to make sure that he can drive this initiative through. It is absolutely the truth that the vast majority of people in this country want to see both the legal and illegal migration figures go down, and near to zero in the case of illegal migration. Does he agree that we have seen from the Opposition today that their plan is not really to affect any figures, which is to prevent democracy from happening, but also to tinker around the edges and reclassify people to pretend that they can solve immigration when actually what they are going to do is just tell a few untruths, perhaps?
Minister reply
Well, what a difference between the questions on our side of the House and those from the Opposition Benches. The right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) said that the Labour party had a plan, but each and every one of her colleagues behind her set out reasons why we should have higher levels of net migration, not lower.
Question
The UK has been an extremely open and welcoming country, but I think most people can see that even the most basic maths shows that numbers in the hundreds of thousands are not sustainable and cannot continue. This is having an unbearable impact on our housing, on our public services and particularly on schools. In schools in Stoke-on-Trent, some of the classrooms have nearly every single child speaking a different first language, which is having a massive impact on those schools without any additional funding. Can my right hon. Friend ensure that we take urgent action now to address these serious issues?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that we need to take urgent action. He is also right to point out the profound impact that very high levels of net migration have on certain communities in particular, such as the one that he represents. It is often the poorest communities that feel the impact most keenly.
Question
Time and time again, the British public have told us that immigration is too high and needs to come down, and time and time again we have sadly left them bitterly disappointed. The levels of net migration we have seen over recent years are completely unsustainable, have no democratic mandate whatsoever and are completely unacceptable. Surely it is time to put this House and MPs in charge of the issue and to set legally binding caps on the numbers of migrants and asylum seekers. That might finally be a net zero policy I can support.
Minister reply
The great reform that this Government have achieved is taking back control of the levers of migration by leaving the European Union. Now the task falls to us to use those in a judicious and discerning way to bring down the levels of net migration, and that is exactly what we intend to do.
Shadow Comment
Yvette Cooper
Shadow Comment
The shadow Home Secretary criticised the lack of clarity from the government regarding net migration, stating that figures are three times their level at the last election. She argued for a properly controlled immigration system linked to economic needs, calling for an end to unfair wage discounts and a review of salary thresholds by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). The Labour Party called for linking the points-based system to training and employment standards in the UK.
▸
Assessment & feedback
Summary accuracy
About House of Commons Debates
House of Commons debates take place in the main chamber of the House of Commons. These debates cover a wide range of topics including government policy, legislation, and current affairs. MPs from all parties can participate, question ministers, and hold the government accountable for its decisions.