Nigel Farage has slammed the pro-mass migration establishment after a new report, first published by the Express yesterday evening, revealed the real cost of jobless migrants and foreign students.
Mr Farage hailed the report’s findings as proof he’s finally been proven right after two decades of campaigning.
Broadcasting from New York City, he told GB News viewers: “For over two decades I’ve made the argument that uncontrolled mass immigration happening on a scale never seen before in the history of our islands, was putting pressure on housing, on GP appointments, and yes – the number of cars on the road.
“I was mocked, I was derided, I was abused for daring to say those things.
Mr Farage said that despite now-widespread public concerns about the pressure of mass migration on public services, the one thing that pro-migrant advocates still claimed is it’s good for the economy.
He said: “I can well remember being with Nick Robinson at the BBC about 10 years ago when he said ‘but, Mr Farage, immigration at these levels is good for GDP!’ To which I said ‘I couldn’t really care less!’”
Mr Farage said today’s report has “blown a hole” in the claim that mass migration is good for the economy.
The Centre for Migration Control’s dossier suggests that since 2020, unemployed migrants have cost British taxpayers a whopping £24billion.
The number rises to an even more eye-watering £36billion when international students are added into the equation.
The report was based on the official data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week.
Robert Bates, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control, told Mr Farage that last year saw a record number of migrants arrive in the UK and then not go on to work.
He emphasised that the multi-billion cost is not coming from so-called unemployed immigrants, which implies they previously had a job and are looking for work, but ‘economically inactive’ immigrants who are not seeking a job.
He reported that the CMS found 1.1 million people who are currently economically inactive and who came to Britain on a visa.
Mr Bates set out that the £24billion-worth of taxpayer cash has gone on providing services such as education, police services, transport, and housing.
Mr Farage described it as an “eye-watering sum”, and asked why nobody has previously produced figures showing the real cost of unemployed migrants.
Mr Bates claimed the establishment’s pro-migrant consensus in Westminster and Whitehall meant they had refused to dig into the figures before.
He added that foreign students are also a “net negative” as British taxpayers still have to provide services for them, separate to anything they might contribute in student fees.
Mr Farage predicted that unless the establishment succeeds in destroying the Centre for Migration Control’s calculations, GB News viewers will be “seeing a lot more of you”.
