Advertisement

  1. National

Remain and Leave clash in final EU referendum debate

Remain and Leave campaigners have clashed at the final major EU referendum debate before polls open on Thursday.

The BBC debate took place in front of 6,000 people at Wembley Arena.

Participants included Boris Johnson for Leave, and his successor as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who is backing Remain.

View all 20 updates ›

Fact check: 'Migrants contribute more to UK economy than they take from it'

Migrants contribute more to the UK economy than they take from it, according to SNP politician Humza Yousaf.

But it is a bit more complicated than that, according to fact-checking organisation Full Fact, analysing the live BBC referendum debate.

Most studies agree immigration makes a relatively small difference to the UK’s public finances overall, costing or contributing less than 1% of UK GDP.

Beyond that national picture, people’s own experiences of immigration will vary: if you have lost your job, it might not matter to you whether the economy as a whole has gained jobs.

Different groups of immigrants have different economic impacts: EU immigrants are generally better for the public finances than non-EU immigrants, while recently-arrived immigrants are generally better for the public finances for the UK than those who have been in the UK for longer.

No single study can say definitively what difference immigration makes - precise numbers should be handled with care.

Each study depends a lot on the assumptions made by researchers about costs of education and effects on general economic growth.

More top news