Immigration influx last year was second highest on record

MORE than 500,000 foreigners migrated to Britain last year as net immigration rose to its second highest level on record.

Figures from the Government's Office for National Statistics show that 577,000 people moved to live in Britain in 2007. Around 75,000 were Britons returning from a life overseas, but the remaining 502,000, or 87 per cent of the influx, were foreign nationals moving here.

At the same time, an estimated 340,000 people left the country, giving a net immigration figure of 237,000 last year- up 46,000 on the previous year and only slightly below the all-time high of 244,000 recorded in 2004.

It means more than 1.8 million migrants have been added to the population since 1997 when Labour came to power.

Today's figures also reveal that more than a quarter of the new arrivals came to live in London and that Poles, who accounted for 96,000 of the migrants, were the largest single national group contributing to the inflow.

Ministers said that separate Home Office figures published today showed that the flow of migrants from eastern Europe has slowed in recent months.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas also said that the 2007 statistics referred to a period before the introduction of the Government's "points based" system.

The Tories said that the figures highlighted the need for a cap on numbers.

Official forecasts predict the country's population will soar to 70 million by 2031 largely as a result of immigration and higher birth rates among recently arrived families. The biggest change last year was a sharp drop in the number of Britons moving abroad with 171,000 going overseas, compared with 207,000 the year before. The number of people migrating out of the UK was down from 400,000 in 2006 to 340,000 last year. This pushed up the net immigration figure because the number of incomers fell only slightly from 591,000 in 2006 to last year's 577,000.

The largest sources of new migrants were New Commonwealth countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, accounting for 130,000 of the 2007 arrivals, and 197,000 from the European Union.

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "These figures betray a Government that has completely lost control over the last 10 years."