Chancellor says he has had ‘absolutely no discussions’ with Rishi Sunak about date of the general election
Here is the Office for National Statistics’ report on migration figures. (See 9.33am.)
Here is an extract from the ONS’s summary. It puts the latest annual net migration figure at 672,000, but says provisional figures suggest this is starting to fall from a record high. That would be due to immigration falling and emigration rising, it says.
The provisional estimate of total long-term immigration for year ending (YE) June 2023 was 1.2 million, while emigration was 508,000, meaning that net migration was 672,000; most people arriving to the UK in the YE June 2023 were non-EU nationals (968,000), followed by EU (129,000) and British (84,000).
Net migration for YE June 2023 was 672,000, which is slightly higher compared with YE June 2022 (607,000) but down on our updated estimate for YE December 2022 (745,000); while it is too early to say if this is the start of a new downward trend, these more recent estimates indicate a slowing of immigration coupled with increasing emigration.
I’m afraid I have not bought anything for my wife. I didn’t even get her a birthday card. I feel incredibly guilty.
What I did was publicly acknowledge her birthday to millions of people, which is something I haven’t done before. So, hopefully I will be able to make up for that at the weekend.
