UK economy sees fall in EU migration

The fall in net migration from the European Union to the UK to below 100,000 for the first time since 2013 could be one reason for the UK’s growth slowdown, according to academic and economist Jonathan Portes.

Portes, who is senior fellow at The UK in a Changing Europe and professor of economic and public policy at King’s College London, said: “After the Brexit vote, the UK has become significantly less attractive to European migrants, for both economic and psychological reasons, and is likely to be one of the factors explaining the UK’s growth slowdown relative to the rest of Europe and the world.”

Portes criticised the government policy of a net migration target as economically illiterate and said the fall in EU migration is already adversely affecting some sectors, such as the NHS, where it has aggravated existing staff shortages. He added: “This illustrates, yet again, the inevitable unintended consequences of the government’s determination to centrally plan the UK labour market.” Portes called for the net migration target and its accompanying caps and quotes to be dropped and replaced by a more liberal and market-driven system.