Rishi Sunak faces Tory backlash as net migration hit record 745,000 last year – bigger than Newcastle population

RISHI Sunak is braced for a huge backlash after new stats showed net migration hit a record high of 745,000 last year.

It means Britain's population grew by more than a city the size of Newcastle in a blow to the PM's pledge to curb the numbers arriving.

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Tory MP Neil O'Brien said: "Today's extraordinary numbers mean the PM must now take immediate and massive action".

Bungling data experts drastically upgraded their previous 2022 estimate of 606,000 by a mammoth 139,000 this morning.

The only glimmer of good news for Mr Sunak is that the ONS put mid-term estimates for the 12-months to June 2023 at 672,000, representing a slight dip on the revised 745,000 figure.

Estimates put the population of Newcastle at around 719,000.

The PM’s pledge to bring net migration below 245,000 as promised in the party’s 2019 election manifesto now looks beyond hope.

Ministers are looking at plans to limit overseas health workers bringing more than one relative with them.

But restless Tory MPs are losing patience and are demanding bolder measures to wrestle down the numbers.

Former minister Mr O'Brien said this morning: "In every election since 1992 we have promised to reduce migration.

"Today's extraordinary numbers mean the PM must now take immediate and massive action to do that to do just that."

Tory MP Tom Hunt told The Sun ahead of the new figures: “We stood on a manifesto saying we’d cut net migration.

“At the time it was a little over 200,000. The vast majority of the electorate think migration is too high.

“We need to bring numbers down substantially.”

It comes as two migrants — a man and a woman in their thirties — drowned yesterday after a small boat packed with people capsized in French waters.

A third victim was airlifted to hospital, while 57 passengers were rescued.