UK net migration up with Ukraine and Hong Kong arrivals

UK net migration rose to a record 606,000 last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.

Net migration is the difference between the number of people arriving in the UK, and the number leaving.

The rise is driven by resettlement schemes for people leaving Ukraine and Hong Kong as well as overseas students.

It is considered a major setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who has been under pressure to deliver a 2019 Tory manifesto pledge to cut net migration.

Appearing on ITV's This Morning, Mr Sunak acknowledged the numbers were "too high" but denied they were out of control.

In 2022, an estimated 1.2 million people arrived in the UK, and 557,000 emigrated, the ONS said.

Most of those coming to the UK were non-EU nationals (925,000), followed by EU nationals (151,000) and British people (88,000).

Among them, 114,000 Ukrainians arrived in the UK last year, after Russia invaded last February.

And 52,000 Hong Kong citizens moved to the UK in 2022 on a special visa scheme created after China imposed a national security law in the former British colony, which made it easier for authorities to punish protesters.

The number of work-related arrivals from outside the EU nearly doubled compared with 2021 - 235,000 compared with 137,000 the year before.

The ONS pointed out that the latest figures reflect changes made during the pandemic in how official migration figures are calculated.

Projections are now linked more to government data rather than surveys of passengers arriving at British ports, and asylum seeker numbers are now included.

Dr Peter Walsh, of Oxford University's Migration Observatory, described the current period as "very unusual" and said the UK was a popular destination for foreign students and workers.

He told BBC Breakfast there have been initiatives from the government and universities to recruit more students, particularly from countries like India and Nigeria.

"They also last year brought around 100,000 partners and children," Dr Walsh added.

"International students pay the high fees which subsidise the education of domestic students."

For more than a decade successive Conservative-led governments have promised to cut migration - once targeting a net figure of less than 100,000.

Reacting to the fresh ONS figures, the Prime Minister told ITV: "Numbers are too high, it's as simple as that. And I want to bring them down."

Asked whether immigration was out of control, Mr Sunak replied: "Well, no, I think the numbers are just too high."

The PM said measures put in place this week were "significant" and would bring levels down over time.

On Tuesday, the government announced it would tighten visa rules for overseas students to try to cut immigration.

From next year, only those on post-graduate research programmes will be able to bring their families to the UK.