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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor

Why Sunak is latest in long line of Tory PMs unable to cut net migration

People queueing at passport control in Heathrow.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that overall net migration into the UK for 2022 was 606,000. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

Successive Conservative prime ministers have aimed to reduce net migration but they never seem to get there.

In 2010, David Cameron pledged to bring net migration – the difference between the numbers who arrive in the UK and the numbers leaving – down to “tens of thousands”. He missed every year.

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