BRITAIN saw the biggest rise in immigration last year — more than any other major economy, statistics show.
Some 746,900 “permanent-type” migrants moved to the UK from overseas — up from 488,400 in 2022.
The 52.9 per cent hike is the highest for the world’s richest nations in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
South Korea ranked second, with a 50.9 per cent surge, followed by Australia with a 39.7 per cent increase.
In terms of raw numbers, Britain only had fewer border arrivals than the United States’ 1.2million, and America’s population is five times the size.
While the ballooning migration figure happened under the last Tory government, it piles pressure on PM Sir Keir Starmer to make good on his promise to bring it down.
Rob Bates, from the Centre For Migration Control, said: “The figures show that Britain is now an international outlier, embarking on a disastrous policy of mass migration at a pace and scale without parallel.
“We cannot continue like this. Without a serious effort to end this country’s mass migration addiction, our public services will eventually buckle under the strain and the British public’s quality of life will continue to deteriorate.”
Sir Keir’s spokesman said: “The PM has been repeatedly clear that migration has been far too high in recent years. It needs to come down.”
The Tories attempted to distance themselves from the issue by insisting a package of controls they implemented earlier this year will slash migration.
Net migration is forecast to settle at around 300,000 a year, down from more than 700,000.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “But Labour now places all of that at risk with an ideologically driven push to can that legacy, which would open the doors to migration and undo all the progress we made.”
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