UK politics reside: Badenoch and Cleverly declare Tory credit score as internet migration falls sharply | EUROtoday

In the previous yr there was a 19 per cent drop within the variety of folks given sanctuary within the UK on humanitarian routes, largely as a result of discount in visas granted on the Ukraine schemes.

New Home Office information exhibits that each the Ukrainian visa scheme, and the scheme for Hongkongers, have seen a considerable drop in grants of sanctuary to the UK. Ukraine scheme visa grants have dropped 53 per cent from September 2023 to September 2024, going from 62,946 to 29,507 grants annually.

For the Hong Kong scheme, there was a 23 per cent drop from round 40,000 to simply over 30,000.The Afghan resettlement schemes and the household reunion route have nonetheless seen massive will increase.

The variety of grants for the Afghan schemes is up 735 per cent year-on-year; from 1,083 grants as much as September 2023 to 9,048 grants as much as September 2024.

Family reunion visa grants, which permit folks granted asylum within the UK to convey their shut household to security, are up 230 per cent year-on-year. This accounts for a rise of over 13,000 grants.

An enormous soar within the processing of asylum claims is apparent within the information revealed by the Home Office this morning.

The quantity of people that have acquired preliminary selections on their asylum claims within the yr ending September 2024 was 102,305 – virtually double the quantity made within the earlier yr because of an elevated variety of resolution makers and larger productiveness.

The success of asylum claims goes down, with solely 52 per cent of preliminary selections being grants of asylum. This is in comparison with 75 per cent within the earlier yr.

Former dwelling secretary James Cleverly has taken credit score for right this moment’s fall in internet migration.

Writing on X, he mentioned: “Today’s migration figures are the first to show the impact of the changes that I brought in as Home Secretary.

“Numbers are still too high, but we see the first significant downward trend in years. Changes that Labour opposed and haven’t fully implemented.”

In a speech on immigration yesterday, Kemi Badenoch mentioned: Tomorrow, immigration figures might be launched that ought to present a drop in internet migration. This is due to the adjustments we made within the final yr of the Conservative authorities.”

There’s been a 21 per cent drop year-on-year within the variety of small boat arrivals, new Home Office information exhibits. New information exhibits that there have been 29,851 small boat arrivals within the yr as much as September 2024.

However when evaluating annual years, extra migrants have crossed the Channel to this point in 2024 than in the entire of 2023.

In January to September 2024, Afghans and Vietnamese have been the 2 most typical nationalities amongst small boat arrivals. While the variety of Afghan arrivals has decreased year-on-year by 14 per cent, the variety of Vietnamese arrivals has elevated by a staggering 117 per cent.

In the yr as much as September, solely 28 per cent of the overall variety of folks claiming asylum within the UK had arrived on a small boat.

ONS director Mary Gregory defined the drop saying: “Since 2021, long-term international migration to the UK has been at unprecedented levels. This has been driven by a variety of factors, including the war in Ukraine and the effects of the post-Brexit immigration system.

“While remaining high by historic standards, net migration is now beginning to fall and is provisionally down 20% in the 12 months to June 2024.Over that period we have seen a fall in immigration, driven by declining numbers of dependants on study visas coming from outside thee EU.”

She added that within the first months of 2024 there has additionally been a drop within the variety of folks coming to the UK for work.

Net migration to the UK dropped 20 per cent within the yr to June 2024, down from a document excessive the yr earlier.

Estimated internet migration to the UK stood at a provisional 728,000 within the yr to June 2024, down from 906,000 for the yr to June 2023, based on provisional figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) launched on Thursday.

The complete for the 12 months to June 2023 has been revised upwards by 166,000 from the preliminary estimate of 740,000.

As a health care provider who grew to become a politician, I consider that a number of the so-called safeguards across the assisted dying laws are utterly false, writes former commerce and defence secretary Liam Fox – who believes the invoice is ‘rushed’ and can enhance dangers to susceptible folks

9.30am: Latest estimates of internet migration to the UK, from the Office for National Statistics. At the identical time the Home Office can be publishing its newest figures regarding asylum purposes.

11am: Reform UK press convention on occasion development, professionalisation and particular announcement

11.30am Government holds foyer briefing

Decisions about assisted dying ought to be made on a “secular basis”, a authorities minister mentioned forward of MPs voting on the difficulty on Friday.

Home Office minister Seema Malhotra acknowledged that “people have their faiths” however selections in Parliament ought to be “based on the evidence”.

Her feedback got here after Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood mentioned she wouldn’t help a change within the legislation on assisted dying due to her Muslim religion.

Ms Malhotra mentioned she would vote towards the laws on Friday, telling Sky News she was “concerned about the challenges, the pressures that could be put on vulnerable people” if there was a change within the legislation.

She mentioned: “People have their faiths but I think what is important is that when we are making decisions as members of Parliament we are making them on a secular basis because that’s the way our Parliament is designed in terms of making decisions based on the evidence and arguing the case for law, the advantages, the disadvantages, the concerns in Parliament.

“And I think that is an important principle to me.

“I want to see that we have a debate that is in a way that everybody feels that their voice can be heard, that they can be respected for the views that they hold, that Parliament is able to make a decision on this on Friday and then that we know the government will abide by the will of Parliament.”

Justice Secretary Ms Mahmood has beforehand acknowledged she is going to oppose the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, telling the Times: “As a Muslim, I have an unshakeable belief in the sanctity and value of human life.”