‘Anger and frustration’ from Tory MPs after calendar year migration record broken
Some Conservative MPs have expressed anger after official statistics showed net migration for a calendar year at a record high.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published data this morning showing that net migration stood at 606,000 in the year ending December 2022.
The figure came despite a Tory 2019 manifesto commitment to “bring overall numbers down”.
Net migration is the annual number of people arriving in the UK when both immigration and emigration are taken into account.
Following the update, immigration minister Robert Jenrick responded to an urgent question in the House of Commons in which he said the government remained committed to reducing migration to “sustainable levels”.
He told MPs: “That is a solemn promise we made to the British public in our manifesto, and we are unwavering in our determination to deliver it.”
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Mr Jenrick pointed to recent curbs on international students bringing family to the UK as a means to bring overall numbers down.
But Labour attacked the government for lacking a plan on migration.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, also criticised Suella Braverman for not appearing in parliament to answer questions on the issue.
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Labour: Govt has ‘no plan’ on migration
A number of Tory MPs also lined up in the Commons to criticise the government’s approach.
Conservative former minister Sir Edward Leigh told the Commons: “Some people in the Treasury seem to think a good way to grow the economy is to fill the country up with more and more people, but this is bad for productivity and bad for British workers who are being undercut by mass migration from all over the world.
“Why is it that under the points-based system we allow people in earning only £26,000 a year but the median UK salary is £33,000 a year?
“Isn’t an obvious solution to this to insist that everybody who comes in is skilled and earns the median UK salary median and then we can boost productivity and get British people back to work?”
The Conservative MP for Cleethorpes, Martin Vickers, said while the “anger and frustration” of his constituents had been on illegal migration, “that anger and frustration will grow when they consider these legal migration figures”.
“We’re creating, roughly speaking, eight new parliamentary constituencies with this number and if that continues it’s clearly unsustainable,” he said.
Mr Jenrick was also criticised by former levelling up minister Simon Clarke, who tweeted that the immigration figures were “too high”.
“There is no popular mandate at all for this level of immigration to the UK,” he wrote.
Brendan Clarke-Smith, the Tory MP for Bassetlaw, also tweeted: “Need to see these numbers cut drastically going forwards.”
The ONS figures showed that total long-term immigration was estimated at around 1.2 million in 2022, while emigration was 557,000.
Most people arriving in the UK last year were non-EU nationals (925,000), followed by EU (151,000) and British (88,000), the ONS said.
However, the ONS added that despite the rise in immigration last year, its long-term international migration estimates “suggest a slowing in growth over the most recent quarters”.
Separate statistics from the Home Office also revealed that the backlog of asylum cases in the UK has hit a new record high.
A total of 172,758 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of March 2023, up 57% compared to the end of March 2022, and the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
The number of people waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 128,812 at the end of March, up 76% year on year from 73,207 – another record high.
Mr Jenrick suggested that speeding up decisions could, in fact, act as a pull factor for people coming to the UK, saying it was “not correct” that processing illegal migrants’ claims faster would reduce arrivals and that “in all likelihood it’ll lead to an increase”.
But the immigration minister appeared to be at odds with Rishi Sunak over the delays.
Asked about the comments, Downing Street said tackling the asylum backlog is “the right approach”.
The prime minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “What we are focusing on is reducing the numbers, tackling that backlog is the right approach.”
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Downing Street also declined to apologise for failing on delivering the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto pledge to bring overall net migration numbers down after the introduction of post-Brexit border controls.
Asked whether the prime minister would like to apologise, his official spokesman told reporters: “We are working to bring those numbers down. We’ve set out a significant package to do that just this week as well as all the work that goes alongside stopping the boats.
“It’s also important to understand what sits beneath some of those numbers – 114,000 Ukrainians coming over for example, 52,000 British nationals from Hong Kong. We think that is something the public can be rightly proud of.
“At the same time, we need to strike the right balance about supporting our economy with getting those numbers down, so we recognise that number’s up too high.”
World
‘They’re terrified of the possible results’: US considers cutting funds to notorious Israeli army unit
The drive into the village of Jiljiliya is not what you expect on the West Bank. Imposing mansions line the route, with grand gates and lavish decorations.
That’s because this is where Palestinian Americans return to build their dream homes after years of hard work in the land of opportunity.
Like Omar Assad who came back after 45 years in Milwaukee. But for him, retirement was neither long nor happy. It was cut brutally short one freezing night in January 2022.
The body of Omar Assad at his funeral
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He was returning from a game of cards when he was stopped at a makeshift checkpoint set up by the notorious Israeli army unit, Netzah Yehuda.
The IDF says he did not cooperate so the 78-year-old was detained with force.
Mraweh Mahmoud was with him.
“They took us down from the car and pushed me by the head,” he told Sky News. “The soldier was standing there and put an M16 in my head and said now I’ll shoot you.”
Mr Assad was tied up, gagged and blindfolded, Mr Mahmoud said, and forced to lie next to him. When the soldiers eventually left Mr Mahmoud realised Mr Assad was dead.
“I took his jacket off his head, I checked there’s no pulse, I shouted Omar, Omar,” he said.
Mraweh Mahmoud demonstrates how a Netzah Yehuda soldier pointed a gun at his head
Palestinian doctors say Mr Assad died in freezing temperatures of a stress-induced heart attack. An Israeli military report condemned the soldiers’ “moral failure and poor decision-making”.
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Netzah Yehuda has a fearsome reputation
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Netzah Yehuda’s battalion commander was reprimanded and two officers were dismissed but Israeli military prosecutors decided against pursuing criminal charges because they said there was no link between the errors made by soldiers and Mr Assad’s death.
But now the unit the soldiers came from is expected to be singled out by the US government and cut off from American funding, in the first-ever such move against any part of the Israeli military.
Reports claim the US State Department will apply the so-called Leahy Law against the unit, which prohibits US assistance to foreign military units guilty of gross human rights violations when their government fails to take sufficient action.
Netzah Yehuda mixes soldiering with religion
Why has Netzah Yehuda become infamous?
The Netzah Yehuda battalion was set up to help ultra-orthodox Jews serve in the army. It mixes religion and soldiering. But in its ranks are also elements of extremist settler groups.
It has become infamous, implicated in one case of alleged abuse of Palestinians after another, many of which its soldiers have filmed on their own phones. Its soldiers have been prosecuted for human rights violations and accused of unlawful killings, electrocution, torture and sexual assault.
Israel’s government has fought a rearguard action against the looming US action.
Netzah Yehuda has been linked to human rights abuses
Its prime minister called the prospect absurd and its defence minister Yoav Galant showed solidarity with the battalion’s soldiers this week saying “no one in the world can teach us about morals and values”.
But one organisation of ex-soldiers opposed to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories says the Israeli government knows this could be just the beginning of action against its military.
Ori Givati from the NGO Breaking the Silence
‘They’re terrified of the possible results’
Ori Givati from the NGO Breaking the Silence told Sky News: “They understand that this might open the Pandora’s box of what the occupation really is, and how it looks like to occupy millions with the military.
“And if that Pandora’s box will be opened and it is starting to open in recent months, I think they’re terrified of the possible results because they want to continue to occupy.”
Back in Jilijilya, Mr Assad’s family welcomes reports America will act against the soldiers they blame for his death but say that’s not enough – they want them brought to justice too.
Nazmia, Mr Assad’s widow, said: “God willing it will be good if they do this, but also punish them like what they did with him, arrest them and fire them from their positions.”
World
Israel-Hamas war: Hostage’s parents tell him ‘stay strong’ after video shows him alive but missing part of arm
The parents of an Israeli hostage have told him “we love you, stay strong, survive” after he appeared with part of his arm missing in a video released by Hamas.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped at the Nova musical festival when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October.
The video shows him with his lower left arm missing; witnesses said it was blown off when he helped throw grenades out of a shelter where people were hiding.
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He reportedly used his shirt as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding, but was captured.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin (middle) was one of over 200 people kidnapped. Pic: Reuters
Clearly under duress in the undated video, the 23-year-old criticises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, saying they should be “ashamed” for not securing the hostages’ release.
He also claims Israeli bombings have killed “about 70 detainees like me” and that the rest are living in an “underground hell without water, food, or sun”.
Mr Goldberg-Polin, who wears a red shirt and sits against a plain white wall, finishes with an appeal to his parents, telling them “stay strong” and “I love you so much, and miss you so much”.
His parents responded to Wednesday’s video by filming their own emotional response.
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Jon Polin says hearing his son for the first time in more than 200 days is “overwhelming”.
“We are relieved to see him alive but we are also concerned about his health and wellbeing as well as that of all the other hostages, and all of those suffering in this region,” he says.
Mr Polin calls for the countries involved in negotiations to “be brave, lean in, seize this moment and get a deal done to reunite all of us with our loved ones and end the suffering in this region”.
His mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, stares resolutely into the camera and tells him: “Hersh, if you can hear his, we heard your voice today for the first time in 201 days… I am telling you – we are telling you – we love you, stay strong, survive.”
Rachel Goldberg holding photos of her son a few weeks after the October attack. Pic: Reuters
Friends and family continue to raise awareness of his captivity. Pic: Reuters
The 23-year-old was born in California but moved to Jerusalem with his family when he was younger.
He was among about 250 Israelis and foreigners kidnapped in the initial Hamas attack, which also killed around 1,200 people.
Some hostages were freed in a deal last year, but more than 100 are still unaccounted for and there is huge pressure in Israel for the government to bring them home.
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Baby saved from womb of dying mother
Israel’s aim to wipe out Hamas has so far killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health authority.
Hundreds of thousands are also said to be on the brink of starvation and have been forced to flee the violence.
Fears are growing that a ground assault on the southern city of Rafah – where more than a million people are sheltering – is imminent after Mr Netanyahu said Israel was “moving ahead” with its plans.
Deep below Jerusalem, Israeli doctors are preparing for the worst.
Sky News has been given exclusive access to an underground hospital where they are expanding capacity in case the current conflict becomes much worse.
In a bunker below the Herzog Medical Centre, the number of beds has been increased to 350 – with 100 on the way.
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“Because it’s built to withstand both biological and chemical attacks,” Dr Yehezkel Caine told Sky News as we entered the complex, “we have an airlock which is built of two separate sets of blast doors”.
Dr Yehezkel Caine says there’s an unprecedented threat to Israel’s people
Beyond they have installed a whole new level of wards below the existing underground hospital, ripping out a logistics floor and installing more beds and equipment.
The bunkers would be activated should other hospitals closer to the front need evacuating.
They are planning for worst-case scenarios here like an all-out war with Hezbollah.
“The hospitals in the north will be overwhelmed with casualties and they themselves will come under fire, in which case they would have to evacuate their patients to the centre of the country, the same as we did in the first weeks of the war in the south,” said Dr Caine.
He and his staff know the 7 October attack last year by Hamas and Iran‘s missile and drone barrage earlier this month have changed everything for the people of Israel.
“For the civilian population since the war of independence we’ve never been in a situation where the threat to the civilian population has been as great,” he said.
Two sets of blast doors form an airlock against biological and chemical attacks
Above ground, the Herzog Medical Centre continues with its peacetime specialisms.
It has Israel’s largest ventilator unit, treating adults and children, but also excels in psycho-trauma treatment and geriatric rehabilitation.
Many of those suffering PTSD from the trauma in this conflict are treated here.
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If Jerusalem itself is attacked, the hospital can evacuate even the most vulnerable to the bunkers below in just a few hours.
The bunkers can be entirely sealed off for 96 hours in what’s called a Noah’s Ark procedure.
The Herzog drills its staff regularly. Preparing for a reality it hopes will never come. But events on the northern border are looking ominous.
Israel has launched one of its biggest bombardments yet of Lebanon’s Hezbollah after multiple shelling of northern Israeli communities.
The lower-level war continues with the ever-present danger of escalation into something much bigger.
If it comes, doctors in Jerusalem’s biggest underground hospital say they’ll be ready.
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