Brexit has proved there are far more EU migrants than officialdom dared admit – Telegraph.co.uk

This week we will find out the real number. Under the settled status scheme put in place following our departure, anyone from the EU already living here can stay permanently. All they have to do is apply, with tomorrow as the final deadline. Hows it going? As of the last update, onMay30, 5,605,800applications had been submitted. There are plenty of reports of a last-minute rush to apply, and calls for the deadline to be extended to cope.

The final number? About seven million seems a reasonable estimate but it could be higher. On top of that, we have to keep in mind that lots of people may have decided to go home over the last year, either because of Covid-19 or because they cant be bothered with the paperwork needed to stay.

The net result? At the peak, eight or nine million EU citizens may have been working in the UK. My maths can be a little wobbly at times, but I can confidently say that is a lot more than the 2.2 million in the official figures. It was out by a factor of three or four, or perhaps five million people the equivalent of seven or eight Manchesters with a couple of Liverpools thrown in.

In truth, the scale of immigration over the past decade was far higher than anyone owned up to. The trouble is, winding that down too quickly is going to come as a huge shock to the economy. You cant suddenly take workers out of the labour market on that scale without causing massive disruption.

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Brexit has proved there are far more EU migrants than officialdom dared admit - Telegraph.co.uk