“David Cameron said 12 months ago: ‘No ifs. No buts. That’s a promise we made to the British people.’ Yet these figures show that promise is being broken,” said Cooper.
According to the latest independent figures published today on May 24, annual net migration to Britain remains at a record high of 252,000 in the year to September 2011, more than the double the UK government’s target for reducing net migration to less than 100,000 a year.
The figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show a drop of just 3,000 in 255,000 recorded in the previous year to September 2010, being a blow to the Home Secretary Theresa May, who has pledged to reduce the number to tens of thousands by the next election in 2015.
“Migration experts have said the government does not have the policies to deliver on the target, so the prime minister is not being straight with the public on immigration. He should not make promises he can’t keep on such an important policy area,” Cooper added.
Meanwhile, saying that net migration was unchanged so far, associate director of the left-of-centre think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, Sarah Mulley, said, “It [the UK government] has also found that it is very difficult to reduce immigration to the UK without imposing significant costs on the economy.”
SSM/SS/HE
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