Talk to MPs of all colours at Westminster and they’ll tell you that when they knock on voters’ doors, the issue of immigration always comes up.

No surprise then that today’s hotly anticipated migration statistics sparked a flurry of activity from across the political spectrum. For Nigel Farage, it was a near-perfect backdrop to boast about how his Reform UK party had hit 100,000 members.

Net migration to the UK fell by 20 per cent to 728,000 in the year to June 2024. However, after revising their calculations, the Office for National Statistics said net migration to the UK in the 12 months previous was far higher than originally estimated, hitting a record high of almost one million.

Crucially, the Government can’t be blamed – or take credit for – the figures. The statistics office attributed the fall to the declining numbers of dependants on study visas coming from outside the EU, a measure introduced by former Tory home secretary James Cleverly.

Labour, perhaps wisely, didn’t oppose these measures at the fag end of the Tory administration, even though some on the left argued the plans were cruel. Instead, they focused on seeking a viable and longer-term alternative to the doomed Rwanda offshoring proposal.

But Labour is not immune to the political significance of today’s figures. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer popped up to say the numbers are “far too high” and signal a “loss of control”. But crucially he didn’t commit to a figure he’d be happy with or a time frame to achieve it. “The days of fiction and pretending there are easy answers are over,” he said at a Downing Street press conference. “These are the days of hard graft.”

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