Politics Reform UK Robert jenrick

Net migration to the UK fell by 50% so now Reform’s Robert Jenrick is complaining about people leaving, not arriving and was owned into next year

John Plunkett. Updated May 22nd, 2026

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It’s not just the most important issue for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, it’s pretty much the only one – immigration.

So Farage and his fellow MPs were presumably breaking out the bunting after it turned out this week that net migration to the UK fell by nearly 50% last year, to 171,000.

That’s down from 331,000 in 2024 and a high of 944,000 in 2023.

The number of asylum seeks being housed temporarily in UK hotels also fell by a third.

And yet, to no-one’s great surprise anywhere, the plaudits from Reform UK were thin on the ground. Not only that, Robert Jenrick, the non-thinking man’s Nigel, was absolutely furious.

Why? Too many people leaving the UK, see?

And there was no shortage of people comprehensively and very satisfyingly putting him back in his box. And these people surely said it best.

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