Government fails in bid to slash net migration

David Cameron's pledge to slash net migration to the UK by the end of this Parliament appears to have been thoroughly broken.

In fact the net influx of nearly 300,000 migrants in the year to last September, is the highest since the Coalition government came to power.

ITV News' Political Editor Tom Bradby reports:

The Government has blamed a rise in EU migration for missing its target to cut net migration to the tens of thousands before the general election.

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire told ITV News: "We have said for some time that we would not meet that target that we set because of circumstances that couldn't be predicted.

"We have had migration from Europe that has doubled since the last general election therefore the circumstances have changed markedly."

David Cameron is "disappointed" with new figures showing a rise in net migration to the UK, Downing Street said.

The Tories had pledged to get the figure down to below 100,000 by the end of the current parliamentary term, but figures released today showed net migration had risen to 298,000 - higher than when the coalition came to power in 2010.

"The Prime Minister is disappointed with today's figures," a Number 10 spokesperson said.

"He had said previously that we have not made as much progress as he would like but he had also said that he doesn't regret making this commitment because he thinks it is in the interests of our country, that we will have a better, stronger country, if we have lower net migration."

Nick Clegg has said the Conservatives have "failed spectacularly" to deliver on their pledge to cut net migration.

The Deputy Prime Minister said his party's coalition partners would have to "suffer the embarrassment" after figures released today showed a marked increase in the number of arrivals to the UK.

"I said to David Cameron he shouldn't make the commitment because it was inevitable he was going to break it because you can't control the net figure," he said on his weekly LBC radio phone-in.

More than half of Britons believe immigration has a negative impact on the NHS, according to a new ComRes/ITV News poll.

About 55% of those questioned said immigration had a detrimental effect on the health service, while 40% claimed it had a negative impact on the economy.

However, most Britons (44%) said immigration has no impact on their ability to find a job and did not effect them personally (51%).

The results come after official figures showed net migration had increased to 298,000 in the year to September - despite the Government pledging to cut numbers to the "tens of thousands" by the general election.

ComRes interviewed 2,059 British adults online between February 20 and 22 as part of the poll.

Madeleine Sumption from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said UK job growth is likely to be a key factor behind the recent increases.

UKIP's Steven Woolfe MEP said "the Government should be be ashamed" of its failure to keep control of immigration numbers

The Government has officially failed to deliver on its pledge to cut net migration before the next election after official figures revealed an increase in the number of people coming to the UK.

Net long-term migration to the UK increased to 298,000 in the year ending September 2014 - an increase from 210,000 in the previous year, the Office for National Statistics said.

The rise was driven by "statistically significant increases" in the number of EU and non-EU migrants entering the UK, the ONS said.

A total of 624,000 people immigrated to the UK in the year to September - up from 530,000 in the previous 12 months.

The figures will be a blow to David Cameron who, along with Home Secretary Theresa May, had vowed to slash net migration to below 100,000 by the end of the current parliamentary term.