Internet migration to the UK rose to an all-time excessive of 606,000 in 2022, piling stress on Rishi Sunak’s authorities, however the nation’s statistical company mentioned the inflow was now levelling off.

Thursday’s report figures fell wanting some earlier predictions that internet immigration reached 700,000 final yr. Nonetheless, they contrasted with the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto pledge — reaffirmed by Sunak — that “general numbers will come down”.

“Numbers are too excessive, it’s so simple as that,” the prime minister instructed ITV after the discharge of the 606,000 determine. “And I wish to convey them down.”

The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics mentioned the full — which compares with a 2021 internet immigration determine of 488,000 — was pushed by folks coming to the UK from exterior the EU, together with from Ukraine and Hong Kong. However it mentioned that internet migration to the UK was now stabilising, with immigration slowing and emigration rising.

The statistics company additionally famous that the combo of migrants had modified over the yr, with proportionally fewer new arrivals coming as college students and extra via humanitarian routes.

The ONS estimated gross immigration from exterior the EU at about 925,000, up by 287,000 from 2021. College students and their dependants made up greater than a 3rd of that whole, with 235,000 arriving on work visas and about 250,000 as asylum seekers or via humanitarian routes.

Non-EU emigration additionally elevated, largely on account of college students returning house, leaving internet immigration from exterior the EU at 660,000.

Immigration from the EU, which accounted for greater than half of arrivals as just lately as 2018, totalled simply 151,000 in 2022. With 202,000 EU residents leaving the UK in the course of the yr, internet EU immigration is now damaging.

Jay Lindop, director of the ONS Centre for Worldwide Migration, mentioned “unprecedented world occasions” mixed with the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions had led to report ranges of immigration.

However she added that the proof steered immigration had slowed, “doubtlessly demonstrating the short-term nature of those occasions”.

Immigration stays extremely politically charged, with the federal government below assault from the fitting and Labour additionally arguing that it has misplaced management of the problem.

Sunak maintained that measures introduced this week to cease abroad college students bringing relations with them would convey ranges down over time, and urged the general public to “relaxation assured” that he had a grip on the problem.

However present inflows stay far above the federal government’s 2010 pledge to cut back internet immigration to the “tens of 1000’s”.

The ONS additionally revised its determine for internet immigration for the yr ending in June 2022, which now stands at 606,000 after the inclusion of asylum seekers — up from the earlier estimate of 504,000.

Tory MPs issued warnings to the federal government to redouble its efforts to cut back numbers.

“The place on earth are you going to deal with these folks? We construct about 180,000 new houses a yr,” Conservative former minister Sir John Hayes, who chairs the so-called Frequent Sense group of rightwing MPs, instructed the BBC forward of the figures’ launch.

Labour lashed out on the authorities over the “extraordinary figures”, highlighting that the variety of work visas issued had doubled because the pandemic.

Yvette Cooper, shadow house secretary, mentioned the federal government had “no grip on immigration” and had “fully did not sort out expertise shortages, particularly in well being and social care, or to get folks again into work after Covid.”

However Jonathan Portes, professor at King’s Faculty, London, mentioned the figures confirmed internet migration was prone to fall in 2023.

“The narrative that immigration is spiralling ever upwards or is uncontrolled is solely false,” he mentioned. He added that the figures confirmed the continued influence of Brexit, with “a whole reorientation of UK migration flows away from the EU and in the direction of the remainder of the world.”

Marley Morris, affiliate director for migration on the think-tank IPPR, mentioned ministers ought to keep away from “knee jerk reactions” to the figures.

He mentioned there have been clear indicators internet migration was stabilising and there was “sturdy public help for the principle drivers of internet migration, together with recruitment into the NHS, worldwide college students, and humanitarian routes”.