Vote to quit the EU ‘driven by migration surge in areas that heavily backed Leave’
Official stats show a large increase in migrants in several of the areas with the highest Brexit vote
MOST of Britain's migration hotspots heavily supported Brexit, new figures show.
The vote to quit the EU came after several parts of Britain saw a 20 per cent increase in the number of foreign residents, according to official data.
The newly released statistics appear to support the theory that areas who were struggling to cope with the impact of immigration ended up opting for Brexit.
Among the Leave-backing districts which have had a huge migrant surge are Boston, Barking and Northampton.
Data from the Office for National Statistics revealed that 20 areas of the UK have seen a rise of 15 per cent or more in the number of foreigners living there since 2007.
Boston in Lincolnshire - which had the biggest Leave vote of anywhere in the country, at 76 per cent - has experienced a 29 per cent surge in its migrant population.
Northampton, East Staffordshire and Harlow, Essex all now have a fifth more foreigners than they did a decade ago.
Each area also saw at least 58 per cent of its voters opt for Brexit, well above the national average of 52 per cent.
In London - where a large majority of residents voted to Remain - some of the few pro-Brexit boroughs are on the list of immigration hotspots.
Barking saw a 38 per cent surge in foreign residents - and ended up backing Brexit by 62-38 per cent.
And Hillingdon, whose non-British population grew by 34 per cent, had a 56 per cent leave vote in the 2016 referendum.
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Experts believe the large Brexit vote in some areas was partly driven by a large influx of migrants which overwhelmed public services in those regions.
However, other areas which have long had a diverse population backed Remain.
Places such as Harrow, Hounslow and Oxford voted against Brexit despite seeing a spike in migration over the past decade.
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