Almost 650k people moved to the UK last year

The UK population officially increased by 491,100 people last year with immigration accounting for the bulk of it. That's the population of Southampton and Derby combined moving to the UK, placing extra demand on housing, hospitals, schools, public services and jobs.

Official net immigration was responsible for 259,700 people whilst population growth was responsible for 226,200. A quarter of the babies born in the UK last year were to immigrant parents. This obviously doesn't include illegal immigration which is conservatively estimated at 18k per year.

But the net immigration figure isn't the most important one, it's the gross immigration figure that gives an idea of the true scale of immigration - a whopping 624,000 were tracked moving to the UK last year. That's the population of Warrington, Swindon, Reading and Blackburn combined moving here in 12 months, most of them being entirely unfamiliar with our way of life, our language, etc. and requiring public services to teach them how life works in the UK.

Controlling immigration was one of David Cameron's "demands" for his failed renegotiation of our relationship with the EU and in 2010 he promised to reduce net immigration to 100k a year, a target that is being missed by an increasingly wide margin year on year.