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Migration Watch UK President (and joint founder with David Coleman, Emeritus Professor of Demography at St John’s College, Oxford) Lord Andrew Green delivered a short speech in the Home Affairs section of the King’s Speech debate on 24 July. He began with these words, “Our country is now facing its most serious challenge in nearly a century – yet no-one seems willing to discuss it.”
Lord Green went on to say that no serious measures to reduce net migration had been outlined and no targets set. Instead, he said, the [new Labour] government “have focused on asylum which accounts for less than one tenth of the overall net inflow.” He continued, “Yet, even if they were to achieve a reduction in net migration to 350,000 a year, the population of the UK would increase by 9 million by the mid-2040s. That is roughly the population of central London. The impact on housing and public services will be immense.”
As we have often pointed out in this newsletter, and as our President repeated in the House of Lords, over the past 20 years, the UK population has grown by 8 million – equivalent to eight times the population of Birmingham. Astonishingly, 85% of this growth was due to the arrival of migrants and their subsequent children.
Lord Green explained, “the total for the last two calendar years was very nearly one and a half million.” This surge is not accidental but the result of specific decisions by the previous government to cave in to pressure from powerful lobby groups such as universities, corporations and the care sector.
Our nation is facing an unprecedented challenge born of the sheer scale of current net migration. And while Labour can justifiably blame the Tories for making the bad situation inherited from Labour 14 years ago worse, they must not duck the responsibility that now falls to them to address the problem head-on. We must say, so far, their response has been unbelievably lax.
Lord Green’s speech is a call for “courageous leadership” from our new government. It’s time for a clear commitment to bring net migration down to as close as possible to [or well below] 100,000 a year – a goal that 80% of the public favour. This isn’t just about numbers; it’s about preserving the integrity and future of the United Kingdom.
Do watch Lord Green’s speech in full here. Getting on for a million people have now viewed it on X – formerly Twitter. And other social media platforms.
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday as soon as it is released