Keir Starmer will NOT enforce cap on net migration as UK set for 72.5m population bomb

A spokesman for the Prime Minister has said that there will be no “arbitrary cap” on the “staggeringly high” net migration figures.

“The Government is committed to bringing down net migration from these record levels,” says the spokesman.

Instead of a cap, Downing Street has vowed to set out a “comprehensive plan” to significantly reduce the figures.

“We’re going to publish a White Paper to set out a comprehensive plan to end these staggeringly high migration numbers,” the spokesman added.

“As the Prime Minister has previously said, we had a supposed cap in place before and it didn’t have any meaningful impact on reducing immigration.

“So he doesn’t think that setting an arbitrary cap, as previous governments have done, is the best way forward in terms of significantly reducing migration.”

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The ONS said the population rise by 7.3 per cent from 67.6 million to 72.5 million from 2022 to 2032 will be almost entirely driven by net migration.

The difference between the number of people arriving and leaving the country is estimated to total 4.9 million over the 10-year period.

ONS head of population and household projections James Robards, said: “The UK population is projected to grow by almost five million over the next decade.

“The driver of this growth is migration, with natural change – the difference between births and deaths – projected to be around zero.”

While births are projected to increase slightly, deaths are also projected to rise because of the relatively large number of people reaching older ages who were born during the so-called baby boom in the wake of the Second World War.

He added that the projections are based on current and past trends, but are not predictions of what may happen.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp described the projection as “shocking and unacceptable”, adding: “It can and must be stopped from materialising” as he called for a “hard, binding legal cap on visas issued each year”.