The Chancellor has been accused of overseeing the flight of hundreds of thousands of Britons amid her tax grabs.
Rachel Reeves has overseen 250,000 departures (Image: Getty)
Rachel Reeves has been accused of sparking an “economic exodus” after new migration data laid bare the rate at which Britons are packing up and leaving. The Office for National Statistics has published a major revision of its immigration and emigration data, revealing that the number of British nationals fleeing the country in 2024 was three times higher than originally believed.
A total of 257,000 left last year, up from the 77,000 originally stated by the number crunchers. The ONS explained they have stopped using the International Passenger Survey, measuring migration using clipboards at airports, arguing the method has “been stretched beyond its original purpose”. In total, emigration between 2021 and 2024 has been revised up by a whopping 650,000.
Boris Johnson oversaw nearly 1m entries into the country in 2023 (Image: Getty)
Tory shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith said that the news is proof that Labour is overseeing an “economic exodus… as people flee Rachel Reeves’s tax hikes and mismanagement”.
“It’s potentially the biggest reverse migration in British history,” he said.
“This was entirely predictable: when you tax something, you get less of it, and now people are voting with their feet. Labour have made our economy uncompetitive and we will all pay the price as hard-working, aspirational people move overseas – and take their tax contributions with them.
“Only the Conservatives have the plan to deliver a stronger economy and make Britain the best place to do business.”
The fresh departures data from the ONS came alongside a similarly major revision to immigration figures under Boris Johnson, which have now increased to an eye-watering 944,000 in the year ending March 2023.
The previous estimation was 906,000 for the year ending June 2023.
Andrew Griffith branded it ‘Labour’s economic exodus’ (Image: Getty)
However because of the rise in departures the total net migration figures for 2024 have been revised down to 345,000, lower than the previously thought 431,000.
Robert Bates, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control said: “The electorate is rightly angry that the last government not only failed to bring migration down, but initiated an unprecedented surge in numbers.
“This data revision means that net migration of foreign nationals during the last parliament was far higher than we first feared.
“It is hugely damaging for public trust that official bodies can simply undercount the numbers moving to our country by a quarter of a million. Border control simply is not possible without wholesale reform of the British state.”
