Let’s stop pretending the immigration crisis is all about boat people. It isn’t
Almost all of the Government’s woes are linked to record population growth, but the problem has been building for years
The population of the UK is now just shy of 70 million. This startling figure, released by the Office for National Statistics in September, was hardly commented on at the time. True, Nigel Farage based his attack on the so-called “Boriswave” of immigration on the figure; but it became more an argument about how to protect the borders and what to do about immigrants already here.
The Reform UK leader said if he won an election he would end indefinite leave to remain (ILR). But even if his party formed the next government, that is more than three years away. At current rates the population will be close to 72 million by then, swelled almost entirely by immigration either directly or indirectly through families born to new arrivals.
This is the real issue facing the country. The row over asylum seekers is something of a distraction, the visible manifestation of a far bigger problem that has been building for years and which even a Labour Home Secretary now concedes is “tearing the country apart”.
Shabana Mahmood defended this sentiment during an impassioned Commons performance on Monday, displaying an emotional conviction rarely seen in the chamber. On this subject more than any other politicians tend to walk on eggshells.
Not Ms Mahmood. She tore into a smug Lib Dem spokesman for tut-tutting about her use of emotive language and reminded her colleagues that they are there to represent their constituents, not some campaigning organisation.
“I wish it were possible to say that there is not a problem here – that there is nothing to see and that in fact these are all extremist Right-wing talking points – but the system is broken. It is incumbent on all Members of Parliament to acknowledge how badly broken the system is and to make it a moral mission to fix this system so that it stops creating the division we all see.”
Amen to that. While it was said in the context of new announcements about illegal migration, Ms Mahmood knows this is really about the bigger picture, one that mainstream politicians have ignored for decades and which now threatens their very existence.
Their failure to stop this trend when they could see what was happening borders on the criminal. In August 2002, I wrote in this newspaper about the formation of a new campaign organisation called Migration Watch UK, which said controversially that Britain could expect more than two million immigrants every 10 years unless curbs were introduced.
The front-page story was instantly denounced, not only by migrant groups but by the Home Office itself, which implied this was an exaggeration whipped up by racists.
As it turned out, the prediction was indeed totally wrong. Since 2002, the population of the UK has grown by around 10 million, the fastest increase in history. Even the post-war baby boom saw only a five million population rise between 1950 and 1970.
The argument for high levels of immigration is that it sustains the tax base when the proportion of retired people has grown, and fills job vacancies. Rising populations also boost GDP, though not on a per capita basis, while overseas nurses, doctors, teachers and other professionals help support the services the growing population needs.
But this becomes a self-perpetuating exercise. The more people you bring in, the greater the pressure on services, requiring yet more immigrants to fill vacancies even though millions of British people are on benefits and not working.
Almost all the Government’s woes are linked to this population explosion, whether they are crammed A&E departments, housing shortages or even a potential lack of water in the South East. They are a function of population pressures which are exacerbated by people living longer.
The latest figures showed the second-largest annual population increase for over 75 years. From the end of the pandemic in 2021 it grew by 2.6 million. How on earth did this happen?
Post Brexit we were supposed to have control of the borders. Indeed, the vote to leave the EU was pushed over the line by some three million first-time voters opposed to high levels of immigration. Arguably, Brexit was less a vote about “taking back control” than reducing numbers and yet immigration is actually higher now that we have left the EU.
The Telegraph: continue reading
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