Curbs ‘too little to hit target on immigration’

The best hope of fulfilling the Prime Minister’s pledge was for an economic downturn to make the country less attractive to migrants and drive away EU migrants already here, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said.

Its predictions for 2012 showed net migration – the difference between the number of people entering the UK and the number leaving – falling from a record 252,000 in 2010 to 180,000 this year.

Matt Cavanagh, the think-tank’s associate director for UK migration, said: “By promising what it cannot deliver, the Government, far from achieving its stated aim of taking the heat out of this emotive issue, will instead feed the public’s sense of disillusionment.”