Net migration to UK rises to second highest on record

Baku. 26 May. REPORT.AZ/ Net migration to the UK rose to 333,000 in 2015, Report informs citing the BBC.

Office for National Statistics estimates this is the second highest figure on record.

Net migration is the difference between the number of people coming to the UK for at least a year and those leaving.

The net migration figure for EU citizens was 184,000 - a record number.

Boris Johnson said David Cameron had been "cynical" to promise to bring net migration down to below 100,000 while the UK was part of the EU.

Mr Johnson, a leading figure in the campaign to get Britain out of the EU in June's referendum, said he was pro-immigration but there was "no public consent for the scale of immigration we are seeing" and the situation was "completely out of control".

Thursday's figures show estimated levels of long-term migration into the UK from within the EU and outside in the year to December 2015.

They show that 270,000 EU citizens moved to the UK for at least a year in 2015, up from 264,000 in 2014. The number of non-EU citizens moving to the UK was 277,000, down from 287,000 in 2014.

The rise in the net figure was the result of a fall in the numbers of people emigrating.