Lord Reg Empey: Immigration into the United Kingdom is most definitely not under control
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I read in your Morning View, July 2 (Trickery is used to downplay the number of immigrants into the UK), that net immigration to the UK was down to ‘only’ 171,000 in year to end of March 2026. As you rightly say, this is still a colossal number of additional people coming to a very overcrowded island nation with huge demands housing, health, and education.
But it is erroneous to suggest that immigration is ‘under control’ as it’s definitely not.
The above figures conceal what is really happening. 813,000 people arrived in the UK in year to end March 2026. This is almost 16,000 people per week! This includes illegal immigration and asylum seekers. Of the 643,000 people who left the UK in the same year, almost 250,000 were British nationals. No meaningful plan exists to integrate new arrivals into our communities. The numbers are just too substantial.
These vast numbers of people, most of whom come from very different cultures to our own, are adding enormous pressure to public services and systematically causing rising tension in society. How could it be any different?
As a community, we are not discussing the implications of these rising numbers. There is a fear of being called ‘racist’ and we have seen how police throughout the UK have been affected by policies designed ‘not to inflame racial tension’.
Successive governments have promised to reduced immigration to ‘tens of thousands’ at successive elections during the last 40 years. All have failed.
Massive increases in the population of the UK, an increasing number of whom are on benefits, can only be sustained if we all get poorer and our public services deteriorate further.
There must be a fair and reasonable balance. No such balance currently exists. Can we please start a sensible conversation on immigration based on facts and economic realities?
Lord Reg Empey