Young Britons turn their backs on Starmer’s high-tax UK

Record numbers of young Britons are turning their backs on the UK.

It is estimated that 136,000 more British nationals left the country than returned in the year to December 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Among young people aged 16 to 34, 75,000 more left than returned in that period, the highest number on record since the ONS started using new methods of calculating net migration for UK citizens in 2021.

Meanwhile, overall net migration nearly halved to 171,000 in the year to December 2025, its lowest since the Covid pandemic five years ago.

It is the first time that the estimate – the difference between the number of people moving to the UK and the number of people leaving the country – has fallen below 200,000 since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the year to March 2021, it stood at 132,000. This was when travel restrictions were still in place to contain the virus and the post-Brexit immigration system had been introduced.

The continued fall in overall net migration is being driven by fewer people from outside the EU arriving in the UK for work, the ONS said.

Net migration among Britons hit its lowest point since records began, with 136,000 more British nationals leaving the country than returning.

This was made up of 246,000 leaving, down from 257,000 last year. Fewer Britons returned to the country, with just 110,000 coming back, down from 140,000 last year.

Among 16- to 34-year-olds, the number of Britons returning to the country has fallen from 65,000 in 2024 to 50,000 this year. Emigration among young Britons remained steady, falling slightly from 130,000 to 126,000 in the same period.

This combination of fewer young Britons returning and stable outflows meant 75,000 more left the UK than returned, up from 65,000 in the previous year.

The ONS said the level of “negative” net migration among young Britons was the “most significant” factor among all age groups of UK citizens.

“This gap has grown every year since 2022. This may suggest young Brits who move abroad for work are staying for longer periods, or that students who study overseas are then staying for work,” said an ONS spokesman.

The number of young Britons on “working holiday maker” visas has more than doubled from 38,177 in 2022-23 to 79,412 in 2024-25, according to the ONS. The visas allow Britons aged 18 to 35 to spend three years working or studying in Australia.

Young Britons born to Polish parents are also returning to their family’s homeland, with the British-born population in Poland increasing from 42,000 in 2015 to 185,000 in 2024, according to UN data highlighted by the ONS.

It was a similar picture for nationals from “EU-plus countries” – covering the 27 members of the EU plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland – with more emigrating from the UK (118,000) than immigrating (76,000).

By contrast, more people from outside the EU moved to the UK in 2025 (627,000) than left (278,000).

The fall in net migration stems from reforms introduced by the Tories restricting the right of workers and students to bring their dependents, and a rise in the salary threshold for foreign workers.

Labour has also raised the skill level required for foreign workers, ended overseas recruitment for care workers, toughened English language requirements and suspended refugee family reunion. Immigration fell by 20 per cent from just over 1m to 813,000. Emigration stood at 642,000 in the year to December 2025.

Under Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership, the Government has launched repeated tax raids on households and businesses in the two years since Labour came to power.

It has put Britain on track for some of the fastest tax increases in the world. Forecasts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that total government revenues will reach 42.1 per cent of GDP by the start of the next decade.

Responding to the ONS figures, Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, said: “Net migration has fallen by 82 per cent in just three years. We will always welcome those who contribute to this country and wish to build a better life here.

“But we must restore order and control to our borders. As these statistics show, real progress has been made, but there is still work to do.

“That is why I am introducing a skills-based migration system that rewards contribution and ends Britain’s reliance on cheap overseas workers.”

Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, said: “Young people are fleeing Labour’s Britain, driven away by high tax and terrible employment prospects.

“The Labour Government has increased taxes and regulation on business which has destroyed new job opportunities.

“With youth unemployment at 15 per cent, the highest for a decade, and 25 per cent in London, it is no surprise Britain’s talented youngsters are leaving the country in their droves driven away by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.”

Asylum-seekers ‘housed locally’

The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels stood at 20,885 at the end of March 2026, down 35 per cent year-on-year from 32,326. It is the lowest figure since data was first reported in 2022, Home Office figures show.

However, the number of asylum seekers in dispersal accommodation – self-catering flats and houses across the country – stood at 68,719, up from under 62,000 just before the 2024 general election.

These figures exclude Afghans who came here under special schemes set up by the government to support those at risk from the Taliban. When they are included, the total receiving support is just over 136,000, up from 130,000 at the election.

Neil O’Brien, the Conservatives’ shadow minister, said in a blog post: “So for all of the Government’s boasting about shutting hotels, for most people in most areas the experience is of an increase in asylum seekers being housed locally.

“Rather like blowing on a dandelion, the Home Office is dispersing people all over the country. The Government hopes this will make the problem less visible.

“There is every chance that it will backfire, as people are left high and dry in the villages and town suburbs where there is very little social infrastructure to connect to and few people in a similar situation.’

The number of asylum seekers making claims in the UK fell by 12 per cent, from 106,130 in 2024-25 to 93,525 in the year ending March 2026. Just over half entered the UK illegally, while a further 39 per cent came to the UK on work, study or visitor visas before switching to claim asylum once in the UK.

The Home Office processed a record number of claims, up from 120,311 to 151,132 in the course of a year. Of these, 79,719 were refused asylum, a record high, and up from 50,803 last year. The result was a sharp fall in the backlog of asylum claims, which hit its lowest level since 2019 at 35,925.

Applications for UK citizenship reached a record of more than 300,000 in the year to March 2026, partly as a result of a surge in EU migrants in the late 2010s who are now eligible to become citizens.

Dr Nuni Jorgensen, researcher at Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, said it could also be that they were attempting to get citizenship before Labour or other parties introduced tougher rules.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]