Rising immigration will see UK population rocket by 12 MILLION by 2040 unless Britain backs ‘Hard Brexit’
Think tank Migration Watch says migrants and their future children will see a population boost equivalent to 12 Birminghams
SKY-HIGH immigration will see the population rocket by 12 million by 2040 unless Britain backs a ‘Hard Brexit’, a think tank claims.
A new report from Migration Watch claims that unless Britain leaves the EU single market, there is no hope of controlling the numbers crossing the border.
Migration Watch argues that Brussels will insist we stick by free movement rules, which it estimates will result in average net migration of around 155,000 a year from the EU alone.
A 12 million increase would be equivalent to adding the entire population of Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania over the next two decades – or a dozen cities the size of Birmingham.
Around 75 per cent of the forecast population rise will be down not just to future migrants from the EU and non-EU nations, but the children they have once they settle.
Migration Watch argues that despite Brexit, the UK will remain attractive to migrants because of the strength of the economy and the wages on offer.
The UK minimum wage is around £1,120 a month – three times higher than the equivalent salary in Poland.
Migration Watch vice chair Alp Mehmet said: “This research spells out the very serious consequences for our society of net migration continuing at its present scale with membership of the single market resulting in a relentless increase in our population.
“An increase of anything like 12 million in just 25 years is, quite simply, unacceptable to the British public and certainly not what they voted for in the referendum.”
Senior politicians and business chiefs are urging Theresa May to opt for a so-called ‘Soft Brexit’ in EU divorce talks, which involves protecting the economy by retaining access to the single market.
But critics claim the EU will never allow this at the same time as giving Britain to right tear up free movement rules which grant any EU citizen freedom to live and work in any EU nation.
Migration Watch argues that as well as job-seekers from European countries, Britain will also be attractive to successful asylum applicants who will take up EU citizenship in the years to come.
The report comes a day after the Sun revealed Jeremy Corbyn’s left wing pressure group Momentum is behind a bid to let more migrants into Britain.
The Labour leader’s followers argue that even current free movement rules are too restrictive.
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Earlier this month, left-wing academic Jonathan Portes said that net migration from the EU would tumble by 150,000 a year once Brexit takes effect. But he argued the fall would damage the economy.
The number of EU nationals living in Britain has doubled to more than 3 million in the past decade.
Migration Watch was one of the few organisations to correctly forecast the surge in Bulgarian and Romanian migrants after ‘transitional controls’ were lifted three years ago.
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