The latest UK immigration statistics have shown that net migration continues to rise with an increase of 78,000 recorded in the year to June 2014 compared to the same period 12 months ago.
A total of 583,000 people immigrated to the UK. The majority of the increase in immigrants came from people moving within the European Union. In fact, around 228,000 EU citizens came to the UK in the year to June.
The figures have been particularly political due to the government's promises to lower the net migration figure. At the start of the current government Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to cut the net migration figure to the “tens of thousands” before next April's election.
Taking all the Office for National Statistics data in to account, the latest net migration figure stands at 260,000, some distance away from the 100,000 target.
Cameron has unsurprisingly been criticised by the opposition following the release of the data. Labour leader Ed Miliband accused him of breaking the “promise he made to the British people”.
The majority of analysis has focused around the fact that EU membership prevents the country from governing the flow of people from with these countries.
According to UK Immigration Minister James Brokenshire, when the figures are filtered, there is an “impact on non-EU migration”, which is “down by 50,000 under this government to levels that we haven't seen since the late 1990s”.
He added that the government doesn't have “those same controls” over EU migration, however. The prime minister has spoken today to address his plans to tackle immigration, with a number of controversial plans announced, including restricting access to benefits for recent migrants.