Immigration up by more than 20%

The increase from 198,000 in 2009 was fuelled by a fall in the number of people leaving the UK and goes against the Government’s pledge to bring net migration down to the tens of thousands by 2015.

Long-term immigration was 575,000, similar to the levels seen since 2004, while long-term emigration fell to 336,000 from 427,000 in 2008, estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed.

Study remained the most common reason for those coming to the UK, with three in four of the 228,000 who come to the UK for study coming from outside the EU.

But the number of people coming to the UK for a definite job was at its lowest in more than six years, at 110,000.

And the number of those leaving the UK for work-related reasons was at its lowest for three years at 179,000, the ONS estimates showed.

The number of people granted settlement in the UK reached a record 241,000 last year, partly due to the number of people being allowed to stay as the backlog of asylum cases was cleared, other figures published by the Home Office showed.

Work-related grants of settlement also reached a record last year of 84,000, reflecting high numbers admitted for work five years earlier.

But figures for the first half of this year showed an 8% fall in the number of people being granted settlement, down to 208,000, with falls in both the work and family categories.

A total of 195,000 people were granted British citizenship last year, down from the record high of 204,000 in 2009 but more than double the level of a decade earlier.

The number of people applying for asylum also fell in 2010, but has started to rise again this year with 4,800 applications between April and June, up 9% from the same quarter in 2010, mainly due to an increase in applications from Pakistan and Libya, the figures showed.

The number of people being removed or leaving the UK voluntarily fell to a record low between April and June this year, the Home Office figures showed.

Just 11,388 people were removed or left voluntarily, the lowest quarterly figure since such data became available in 2001.

The figures also showed the number of work visas issued (161,000) and admissions for work (163,000) rose slightly last year compared with 2009, up 3% and 1% respectively.

The international passenger survey estimate of those coming to the UK for work from outside the EU was at its lowest level since 1994, just 53,000 compared with the record high of 106,000 in 2006.

Matt Cavanagh, associate director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said: “Politicians shouldn’t promise what they can’t deliver, particularly on immigration.

“Before the election, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said immigration was out of control; afterwards, they said they would cut it dramatically. Neither was true.

“Today’s figures reinforce how stable immigration has been both before and after the election: the ONS estimate non-British immigration for 2010 at 455,000, compared to 437,000 in 2009 - and broadly stable since 2006.

“Emigration has continued to fall, down over 20% since 2008, meaning that ‘net inward migration’, the Conservatives’ chosen target, remains high at 239,000, a 21% increase on 2009.”

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the campaign group Migration Watch UK, said: “These figures lay bare the legacy of the Labour government.

“Immigration last year was close to a quarter of a million.

“The coalition Government will have to face down some vested interests if they are to get anywhere near their target of tens of thousands.”

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: “After almost two years of increasing net migration the figures stabilised in the last quarter.

“This explains why the Government radically changed immigration policy, from our first months in office, to drive the numbers down with a limit on economic migration and changes to student visas to ensure we attract the brightest and best whilst tackling widespread abuse of the system.

“We are currently consulting on a range of further measures which will drive down numbers further.

“These statistics cover a period before we introduced our radical changes to the immigration system to bring net migration back down to the tens of thousands.”

Net migration from the so-called A8 countries - the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - rose almost eight-fold last year to 39,000 from 5,000 in 2009, the ONS figures showed.

The number of people coming to the UK from Eastern Europe rose from 52,000 to 71,000 last year, while the number of those leaving fell from 47,000 to 31,000, the ONS figures also showed.

Gerard Batten, Ukip’s home affairs spokesman, said: “The rise of 21% in year-on-year net immigration figures tears a gaping hole in any pretence that this Government has the faintest idea of how to deal with runaway migration.

“This gives a lie to all those silky promises made by (Prime Minister David) Cameron at the time of the General Election and the thousands of soundbites by Government ministers since then. They have lost the plot.”

He said the rise meant “that the population of a city the size of Stoke-on-Trent has arrived in the UK in the last year alone”.

“These headline net figures also disguise an even more concerning trend, and that is the transfer of population made clear by the gross figures which show that over half a million - more than the population of Sheffield - have arrived in the last year, while 336,000 have left,” he said.

“The social impacts of this are even greater than the bald figures make clear.”

The number of Poles living in the UK has risen from 75,000 in 2003 to 532,000 at the end of last year, other ONS figures released today showed.

It comes after Poland and the seven other central and Eastern European countries, known as the A8, joined the EU in May 2004.

Around two in three of all A8 citizens who have migrated to the UK have been Polish, the figures showed.

The figures also showed the number of Poles working in the UK between April and June this year reached 449,888, up 15% from January to March.

More than four in five Poles aged 16 to 64 were employed, compared with just seven in 10 of the UK population as a whole, during the second quarter of 2011.

Mr Batten added: “This Government is afraid of dealing with the issue and it is frightened of talking seriously about the it.”

Shadow Home Office minister Shabana Mahmood said: “These figures reveal the gulf between the Government’s rhetoric on immigration, and the reality we see in the official figures.

“Since an immigration cap was introduced by the Government, the number of work-related visas issued has gone up.

“Net migration, the Government’s measure for its pledge to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands, now stands at 239,000.

“The Prime Minister said ‘no ifs, no buts’ on immigration, but on the contrary ‘ifs and buts’ sum up the Government’s policies.”

She went on: “The Government is not being honest with the British public.

“They have shown a keen interest in hyperbole around immigration, doing everything they can to make it a party political issue, but they are busy further eroding trust in Government’s ability to manage it.”

Other ONS figures showed births to mothers born outside the UK accounted for one in four of all live births in the UK last year.

In Newham in east London, this rose to three in four, the highest percentage of births to mothers born outside the UK.

Poland became the most common country of origin for non-UK born mothers, while for fathers it was Pakistan.

Net migration - the number of people coming to the UK for more than a year, less the number leaving - increased by a fifth in 2010 compared with 2009, but was down slightly to 239,000 from 242,000 in the year to September 2010, the figures showed.

Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “It is significant that there has been a marked increase in people from Libya and Bahrain applying for asylum here, clearly showing the impact that unexpected crises around the world can have on our asylum system in the UK.

“Yet the cuts in funding to asylum support services across the country will mean that charities will struggle to provide the support these people need.”

She went on: “Now that the asylum backlog has been finally dealt with, the Government has a real chance to make the asylum system as accessible, fair and effective as possible to ensure those in need of protection can get it.”

The 239,000 figure for net migration was the second highest year-end figure since records began in 1991, behind 245,000 in December 2004, figures showed.

It was also the fourth highest figure for any 12-month period on record, behind 260,000 in the year ending June 2005, 245,000 in the year ending December 2004, and 242,000 in the year ending September 2010.