Historic Fall in UK Migration Can’t Come Fast Enough for Starmer

Inflatable dinghies and outboard motors believed to have been used by illegal migrants to cross the English channel to England, in Dover.

Photographer: Carl Court/Getty Images

Figures due on Thursday are likely to show Keir Starmer presiding over the biggest ever drop in net migration to the UK. For the prime minister, however, the hard part will be getting any credit from voters.

Net migration soared after the pandemic, reaching a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023. The in-flux then slowed to a still-exceptional 728,000 last summer, shortly before Starmer’s Labour Party returned to power with a landslide victory over the Conservatives.