Record UK Migration Surge Set to Expose Government Divisions
- New figures expected to confirm historic wave of arrivals
- Businesses says foreign labor needed to ease recruiting crunch
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Data confirming a record surge in migration into the UK is expected to lay bare splits in the ruling Conservative Party and highlight the economy’s urgent demand for new workers.
The Office for National Statistics is poised to publish 2022 immigration figures on Thursday that are widely expected to exceed even the record 504,000 reported six months ago. That’s a political problem for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is under pressure to deliver on a long-standing Tory promise to bring down the number of foreigners arriving in the UK each year — a central argument for Britain’s exit from the European Union.