The majority of the British The public believes the number of migrants living in the UK is too high, according to a new poll from BMG Research. It could be a sign that voters don’t believe Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has a firm handle on the issue, despite efforts to cooperate with the French president Emmanuel Macron to deter small boat crossings across the English Channel.
Exclusive research for i found that 63 percent of respondents thought the number of migrants was “too high”.
This view was reflected across the political spectrum, with 84 per cent of Conservative voters in 2019 agreeing with the statement, along with 52 of those voting Labor and 50 per cent of Liberal Democrat voters.
Voters in Wales and the East of England tended to believe that immigration was too high compared to lower rates in London and Scotland.
Older voters over the age of 65 were also much more likely to believe that the number of migrants was too high compared to voters aged 18-24.
Those who preferred to stay out of the EU rather than rejoin were also much more likely to believe the migration was too great.
Voters for the Brexit Party in 2019 also overwhelmingly supported the state, although SNP and Green Party voters were more pro-migration with 50 per cent and 43 per cent believing the current level of migration was “about right”.
Although the figures come less than two weeks after a record number of migrants entered the UK, the majority of the 1,571 believed the level was too high, whether or not they had been made aware of this increase.
BMG researcher Yiota Papouridou said the poll showed the public had “fairly entrenched opinion, with a large majority believing the numbers were too high”.
READ MORE: POLL: Should Boris Johnson return to frontline politics?
Over the weekend, Immigration Secretary Robert Jenrick said migration would be a problem for “many years”, and warned that the number of people coming is “unsustainable”.
Mr Jenrick argued that those arriving in the UK from Albania should not be allowed to apply for asylum as they are from a “demonstrably safe” country.
He also pointed to student visas as an area “ripe for reform”, as figures from the Office of National Statistics showed that the rise in migration was fueled by international students and their dependents.
“We have very liberal rules for students who bring their family members and that is something we would like to review,” Mr Jenrick told GB News.
He added that student visas were used by some as a “back door” to bring families into the country.