More than half of Brits want migrant influx cut as last year’s arrivals reach record 700,000, Sun poll reveals
MORE than half of Brits think immigration has been too high over the past ten years, a Sun poll reveals.
Figures to be published next week are expected to show net migration last year reached an all-time high of 700,000.
Our findings will heap fresh pressure on the Tories and Labour to commit to making significant reductions in the numbers of people moving to the UK.
Yesterday, PM Rishi Sunak was unable to say when net migration will fall — while Labour said it is content for it to go up.
In The Sun’s YouGov poll, 51 per cent say immigration has been too high for ten years — soaring to 77 per cent of those voters that gave the Tories their 2019 majority.
But more than three-quarters of voters say the Government will never hit its promise to reduce legal entry into the UK.
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During the G7 summit in Japan, the PM declined to say when numbers will come down. He said: “I’m not going to put a precise figure on it but I do want to bring them down.
"The numbers are too high and we want to bring them down.
“The numbers last year were impacted by the fact that we welcomed Ukrainian refugees to the UK. Again, that’s something I think we are proud of.”
But Mr Sunak refused to set a target, saying only that he was “committed to bringing down the levels of migration that I inherited”.
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He also said he is “relentlessly focused on stopping the boats” and illegal immigration.
Up to and including Thursday, 7,217 people have crossed to the UK on small boats this year, according to the Home Office.
A Border Force vessel brought about 70 people, including some children, in to Dover, Kent, yesterday after a small boat incident in the Channel.
The PM will have another one-on-one chat about the crisis with France’s President Emmanuel Macron today on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima.
But the public are sceptical that anything meaningful will be done to reduce migration targets over all.
Just eight per cent think Mr Sunak will see any reduction, with 77 per cent giving up any hope of seeing the numbers fall.
Just over a third of voters say those who want to reduce immigration into the UK do so for racist reasons, although 51 per cent of voters say that is not the case.
But it soars to 61 per cent of Labour voters who believe reducing migration is for racist reasons.
Migrant rise plans for Labour
LABOUR would be happy for net migration to rise in the “short term,” the party’s chairwoman said.
Anneliese Dodds claimed that opposition chief Sir Keir Starmer would let foreign workers in to fill shortages in certain sectors “where there’s a short-term need for skills”.
She told Sky News: “But in the medium and long term, a reduction, because we would be training people up in our own country.”