London - Net migration to the UK has risen to 298,000, according to the final set of quarterly figures before the general election.The figure, for the year ending September 2014, is now well above the level of migration when David Cameron came to power in 2010.The Conservatives had hoped to get it to below 100,000 by this May. Net migration peaked at 320,000 in the year to June 2005. At the time of the 2010 election it was 252,000. Net migration is the difference between the number of people who come to live in the UK for at least a year and the number who are leaving for at least a year.
The big increase in the latest set of figures was driven by a "statistically significant" rise in immigrants arriving in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. Immigration was up to 624,000 in the year to September from 530,000 in the previous 12 months. About 327,000 people emigrated from the UK in the same period. The Conservatives have previously blamed a rise in migration from within the EU for missing their target.
But experts at Oxford University's Migration Observatory said net migration from outside the EU has never been less than 100,000 at any time over the course of this parliament, meaning the target would have been missed with or without any rise in EU migration.(FA)
