The latest immigration figures are out and they still don't add up

Last year - according to British government figures - 257,000 immigrants arrived in the UK. Of those 257,000, about 630,000 applied for National Insurance numbers.

No, an extra zero hasn't slipped in there by mistake. About 630,000 new National Insurance numbers were issued to EU immigrants last year enabling them to work and claim benefits whilst according to the Office of National Statistics, only 257,000 EU immigrants came to live here.

Some of the discrepancy can be explained away by existing EU citizens living here without National Insurance numbers applying for a number because they've decided to work or pay tax but that's not a plausible explanation for a difference of over 370,000. Either there is rampant benefit fraud taking place or the ONS are way out on their statistics.

In reality it's probably a combination of both but mainly the ONS fiddling the numbers to suit a political agenda. We said back in November that the numbers didn't add up and they still don't.