Rishi Sunak warned migration is ‘do or die’ as he’s rocked by huge backlash over record levels

RISHI Sunak has been warned to slash migration “do or die” after net arrivals hit a record high of 745,000 last year.

It means Britain's population grew more than a city the size of Nottingham - marking a hammer blow to the PM's pledge to curb the numbers.

Raging Tory MPs tonight threatened open revolt unless radical steps were taken and said he “must act now”.

Axed Home Secretary Suella Braverman branded the stats a “slap in the face to the British public”.

They let rip after bungling data experts were forced to drastically revise up their 2022 estimates for net migration by a staggering 139,000.

Officials said the real figure was actually around three quarters of a million - rather than the 606,000 they had previously thought - and blamed “unexpected” migrant behaviour for the error.

Mr Sunak’s pledge to reduce net migration to 2019 levels of around 230,000 appears in tatters and Downing Street yesterday admitted it was “far too high”.

The Sun understands No10 is urgently drawing up a “response package” expected to include a crackdown on workers bringing dependents, and higher salary thresholds.

The only glimmer of good news for Mr Sunak is that the ONS put the latest estimates for the 12 months to June 2023 at 672,000, representing a slight dip on the 745,000 figure.

A total 1.18million came to the UK during that period - mainly legally but also illegally - while 508,000 left.

The surge was driven by non-EU migrants with 253,000 arrivals from India the largest group.

Students accounted for 39 per cent of all non-EU arrivals, with those on work-related visas making 33 per cent.

Ms Braverman has led a mammoth backlash from the Tory right and claimed she had unsuccessfully pushed for harsher curbs while in Cabinet.

She said: “Today’s record migration stats show we’ve let in an extra million people in just two years, a population equivalent to Birmingham.

“The pressure on housing, the NHS, schools, wages, and community cohesion, is unsustainable. When do we say: enough is enough?

“We were elected on a pledge to reduce net migration, which was 229k in 2019. Today’s record numbers are a slap in the face to the British public who have voted to control and reduce migration at every opportunity.”

She called for an annual cap on net migration, raising the salary requirements to £45,000 for all but health and care workers, closing the graduate visa route and limiting dependents.

Her blasts were echoed by the New Conservatives faction of Tory MPs who warned the issue could spell curtains for the party.

They said: “The word ‘existential’ has been used a lot in recent days but this really is ‘do or die’ for our party.

“Each of us made a promise to the electorate. We don’t believe that such promises can be ignored.”

Turning on their leader, they said the crisis was “caused directly by the policy decisions of this Government. And it has gone on far too long”.

Former Cabinet Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC: “I'm embarrassed that we haven't achieved what we set out to achieve.”

Ex-minister Neil O’Brien added the “extraordinary numbers mean the PM must now take immediate and massive action”.

Fellow Tory MP Jonathan Gullis piled in: “These figures are completely unacceptable to the majority of the British people and we must take drastic action now to bring legal migration down, as well as stopping the boats.”

Another told the Sun: “I feel numb. Such is the level of anger and despondency I feel.”

Even Sir Keir Starmer - who once advocated for free EU movement - slammed the “shockingly high” migration.

New Home Secretary James Cleverly insisted the government “remains completely committed to reducing levels of legal migration”.

He stressed some of the numbers were due to welcoming Ukrainian and Hong Kong refugees.

But he sparked incredulity among Tory MPs for playing down the scale of the figures as “not showing a significant increase”.

Former PM David Cameron famously vowed to get annual net migration down to the “tens of thousands”.

No10 insisted some level of migration was needed so foreign workers could plug vacancies.

Mr Sunak’s spokesman said: “He remains clear it is too high and that's why we are looking at further options but we need to do this and approach this and respond in a way that also supports our (economy).”

There are fears within Whitehall that drastic measures could push up the cost of health and social care if cheap labour is made less available.

No10 also promised to leave "no stone unturned" in tackling abuse of the visa system.

This year Mr Sunak announced international students will be banned from bringing family with them unless they are doing postgraduate research.