Amid already dreadfully low poll numbers, the globalist-aligned Tory government is facing increased pressure over its abject failure to control—or complete indifference toward—the ever-increasing torrent of illegal and legal migration into the United Kingdom.
The increased pressure comes after the Home Office on Thursday, May 25th, released figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) which revealed that—despite the Tories’ repeated promises to drastically reduce immigration—the level of net migration into the United Kingdom climbed to record levels in 2022.
According to the ONS figures, the UK witnessed a net migration number of more than 600,000 people last year, with some 1.2 million people arriving and roughly half of that number departing.
More than three out of four (77%) of new arrivals in 2022, which amounts to roughly 925,000 people, were non-EU nationals. Of that figure, about one in twelve were asylum seekers.
Commenting on the alarming uptick, Jay Lindop, who serves as the Director of the Center for International Migration at the ONS, said: “The main drivers of the increase were people coming to the UK from non-EU countries for work, study, and for humanitarian purposes.”
The figures reveal a massive increase in immigration since before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Tory government having granted 1.1 million visas in 2022—the highest number of visas granted in a single year and almost double the level recorded prior to the UK’s exit from the EU in 2016.
For example, in the twelve months that preceded June 2016, before Brexit, Britain recorded a net migration of 311,000 people.
The sky-high numbers of foreign nationals that have been allowed to flow into the country under the Tory government, which has been in power for twelve years, and which came to power largely due to its promises to leave the EU and significantly curtail immigration, is being seen by a great many Britons as a betrayal.
In 2010, while he was running for high office, David Cameron promised the people of Britain that, if he were elected, he would reduce net immigration to the “tens of thousands,” a pledge that was never kept—not even close. A year later, during his time as prime minister, Cameron doubled down on his promise to the British people, claiming that the reduction would take place by the 2015 election, “no ifs, no buts.” When the election came, however, the level of net migration had jumped to 379,000.
Successive Tory prime ministers, first Boris Johnson, then Liz Truss, then Rishi Sunak, have stuck to this line, and they have all failed, purposefully or not, to deliver.
Prominent political figures across the UK have taken the opportunity to denounce the Conservative Party for its failures and repeated broken promises.
Nigel Farage, the former leader of UKIP and the Brexit party, said that the Tories, by allowing net migration to reach a record high, amounted to a “total breach of trust” between voters and the state.
The opposition Labour Party also leveled tough criticism against the Conservatives, with shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper tweeting: “Today’s extraordinary figures, including doubling the number of work visas since the pandemic, show the Conservatives have no plan & no grip when it comes to immigration.”
