BloombergLive EventsYou Might Also Like: UK tightens citizenship rules to block migrants entering country illegallyBloombergBloombergBloombergBloombergFigures due on Thursday are likely to show Keir Starmer presiding over the biggest ever drop in net migration to the UK . For the prime minister, however, the hard part will be getting any credit from voters.Net migration soared after the pandemic, reaching a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023. As a result, twice-yearly migration numbers from the UK’s official statistics bureau have become the mostly hotly anticipated data point in Westminster politics. “The research suggests right across Europe that this isn’t a tactic that’s likely to work for this government.”Still, Thursday’s migration numbers could provide a boon for Starmer “even though it’s absolutely nothing to do with anything” Labour has done, Ford added. “They need to accept that they will never be able to outbid the Tories, let alone Reform on this issue,” Ford said.
