Net migration to the UK fell to its lowest level since the pandemic, a boost for Keir Starmer’s Labour government as it comes under intense pressure to curb the number of foreign nationals coming to the country.
Some 204,000 more people came to the UK for a long-term stay than departed in the 12 months through June, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. That’s less than a third of 649,000 figure for the same period a year earlier. Arrivals from outside the European Union fell sharply and EU and British citizens left the country on balance.
Separate, more up-to-date data from the Home Office for the year to September 2025 indicated a further decline, as the number of people granted visas to enter the UK dropped to the lowest since 2022.
The fall will be welcomed by Labour, which has made tackling migration one of its top priorities since being outflanked in polls by the populist right-wing party, Reform UK, earlier this year.
The latest decline, however, largely reflects curbs introduced by the previous Conservative government after net migration hit a peak of almost a million in the year ending March 2023, prompting concerns around the pressure this was placing on public services.
The Tories under then-prime minister, Rishi Sunak, began to tighten the immigration system by raising salary thresholds and restricting which migrants could bring family members to the UK. That mission has continued under Labour, as voters consistently name immigration as one of their top concerns in polling.
Just this month Starmer’s government announced the details of its reform of the immigration system, including making lower-income workers wait longer until they’re able to gain residency in the UK, and time-limiting refugees’ right to stay in the country.
However, it’s still struggling to bring down the numbers of irregular migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats. While asylum seekers, most of whom arrive on small boats, only accounted for 11% of immigrants, their number climbed from 81,000 to 96,000 in the year to June.
It is the small boats numbers, rather than the headline net migration numbers, which has now become a key concern for Starmer due to the vast amount of public money being spent on housing and supporting asylum seekers. Asylum accommodation is expected to cost more than £15 billion ($19.8 billion) over the next decade.
“Today’s figures blow apart every claim Labour have made about getting control,” said Chris Philp, who speaks on home affairs for the main opposition Conservative Party. “More grants, more claims, more hotels, almost no removals of small boat immigrants.”
Reform UK, which gained just five seats in Parliament at the 2024 election but now has a commanding lead in opinion polls, highlighted Home Office figures showing the number of people housed in migrant hotels has grown 23% since the election and asylum claims hit record levels.
“Reform is the only party that wants to secure our borders, bring an end to mass immigration and deport those here illegally,” said its head of policy, Zia Yusuf.
The ONS said the fall in net migration in the year to June was primarily driven by a drop in non-EU nationals arriving for work- and study-related reasons and a gradual increase in levels of emigration. Total emigration hit 693,000, the largest number in ONS records going back to 2012.
Among those who left the country, most were non-EU nationals, many of whom had arrived on study-related visas. Around 252,000 British nationals emigrated, while almost twice as many citizens from EU and other European countries departed from Britain than arrived — continuing a downward trend since the Brexit referendum.
A total of 3.1 million people were granted visas in the year to September, compared with 3.2 million a year earlier, according to the separate Home Office figures. The number of work visas issued slipped to 273,442, down 39% on a year earlier and the lowest level since the 2020 calendar year.
The Conservative crackdown on immigration followed a surge in the wake of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic when restrictions on worker visas were relaxed in an attempt to fill job vacancies in sectors such as adult social care.
Ben Brindle, researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said it “does seem that the composition of migration has become less favorable from an economic perspective, with fewer people getting skilled worker visas and a higher share of refugees, who often need a lot of support.”
Dora Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, said the decline in skilled worker visas was “completely out of step with what the government needs to meet its ambitious housing and industrial targets.”
“This government’s preoccupation with reducing immigration is actively working against economic growth,” she said.
In its assessment of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s budget this week, the Office for Budget Responsibility said it hadn’t taken account of the government’s proposals to reform the immigration system in its forecasts because “we do not have sufficient detail on indefinite leave to remain to incorporate these changes.”
(Reporting by Lucy White)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Also Read: UK plans fast-track residency path for high-earners, but tightens immigration norms