David Cameron's pledge to cut net migration to the 'tens of thousands' Britain lies in tatters today as new figures show the figure is now higher than when he became Prime Minister.
Some 260,000 more people arrived in the UK than left in the last year, including a record 228,000 extra immigrants who arrived from elsewhere in the European Union.
Mr Cameron is putting the finishing touches to a major speech setting out how he plans to 'reform the freedom of movement in the EU that is driving the rise in immigration to the UK'.
But Lib Dem Deputy PM Nick Clegg said the Tories would have to 'suffer the embarrassment' of breaking a promise on cutting net migration which was always impossible to keep.
Mr Cameron is expected to seize on the figures to bolster his call for a way to cap the number of people who can move to Britain from other European Union countries.
A much-anticipated speech by the Prime Minister will set out a raft of new curbs on access to benefits.
Downing Street has been warned by other EU leaders that any attempt to cap the number of EU migrants who can come to Britain would be illegal.
But immigration minister James Brokenshire insisted Mr Cameron will use his speech to set out 'how we intend to reform the freedom of movement in the EU that is driving the rise in immigration to the UK'.
The Office for National Statistics today said net migration has been rising steadily since the low of 154,000 in the year to September 2012.
The number of people arriving in the UK in the year to June 2014 hit 583,000, up 16 per cent from 502,000 a year earlier.
At the same time a total of 323,000 people left the UK, which has remained relatively stable since 2010.
Almost two thirds of the increase in the numbers arriving in the UK came from countries within the EU.
The impact of the Eurozone crisis on countries like Spain, Italy and Greece has seen large numbers move to the UK, along with thousands from Romania and Bulgaria since work restrictions were lifted on January 1 this year.
The number of people moving to the UK for work is up by a fifth to 247,000, including a rise of 11,000 Romanians and Bulgarians, and an extra 10,000 from the s-called EU10 countries: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The number of EU migrants in work in Britain from July to September this year was 16 per cent higher than the same period last year.
Ministers argue that immigration from outside the EU – which can be subject to UK government controls – has fallen.
However, the breakdown of figures show non-EU immigration is also rising. The ONS said: 'Immigration of non-EU citizens has been declining since the year ending September 2011, when an estimated 334,000 non-EU citizens immigrated to the UK.
'The latest estimates for the year ending March 2014 suggest that this decline has ended, with 265,000 non-EU citizens immigrating to the UK, a slight increase but not a statistically significant change, from 246,000 in the previous year.'
Before the election Mr Cameron said he wanted to see net migration 'in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands'.
After becoming Prime Minister he repeated the pledge in 2011, adding: 'No ifs. No buts. That's a promise we made to the British people.'
The closest Mr Cameron came to meeting the target was in the 12 months to March 2013, but since then the figures have been rising.
The Lib Dems never signed up to the target as a coalition policy, insisting it was unworkable because Britain cannot control the number of people who come from the EU.
Today Mr Clegg insisted he had warned his Conservative coalition partners that the net migration figure could not be controlled.
Speaking on his LBC radio phone-in, the Lib Dem leader said: 'This was a Conservative commitment. I kept explaining to the Conservatives not to make a net target. It doesn't make any sense.
'They have now broken that promise and they will have to suffer the embarrassment of that.
'We need to deal with immigration in an intelligent way, but not by raising false hopes that we can meet a net target that the government does not have control over.
'I think that it does damage public confidence in the immigration system by over-promising and under-delivering in this way.'
At the weekend Home Secretary Theresa May admitted the promise had been 'blown off course' by a higher-than expected influx from the EU.
'It is, of course, unlikely that we are going to reach the tens of thousands by the end of the Parliament,' she said.
Today Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future think tank, said: 'There's no point in the government making out that immigration is going in the direction they want it to.
'The net migration target is dead and buried. The question is what happens next, why this has happened and what the government is going to do about it.
'It's clear now that they can't hit the target. That's partly because of immigration from within the EU but also from outside the EU too: even if there had been no change in EU migration, the target would have been missed.'
Embarrassingly for Mr Cameron, net migration is now 16,000 higher than it was in the year to June 2010 when the coalition Government came into power, when it was 244,000.
It is the first time in three years that net migration is higher than when the Government came into power.
Tory immigration minister James Brokenshire said: 'Uncontrolled, mass immigration makes it difficult to maintain social cohesion, puts pressure on public services and forces down wages.
'Our reforms have cut net migration from outside the EU by nearly a quarter since 2010 - close to levels not seen since the late 1990s.
'We are building an immigration system that is fair to British citizens and legitimate migrants and tough on those who flout the rules. But clearly there is still more to do.
'And that is why the Prime Minister will shortly be setting out how we intend to reform the freedom of movement in the EU that is driving the rise in immigration to the UK.'
However, today's figures will be seized on Conservative MPs to step up pressure on Mr Cameron to take a tougher stance on EU immigration.
Mr Clegg yesterday said European migrants should be banned from claiming benefits until they have paid taxes for at least six months.
The Deputy Prime Minister also suggests in-work benefits like tax credits should only be available to people working full-time on the minimum wage.
Mr Clegg insists that benefits for EU migrants can be curbed without 'tearing up' freedom of movement rules within the 28-member bloc.
Downing Street has made clear that Mr Cameron wants to be able to tackle the numbers of people who can move from other EU countries, as well as limiting access to the welfare state.
Last week the Labour party announced it would seek to increase the time EU jobseekers must wait before claiming out-of-work benefits from three months to two years.
Rachel Reeves also said she wanted to change rules on in-work benefits to stop employers using tax credits to top up low wages for temporary workers.
Labour also wants to end the 'absurdity' of child benefit and child tax credits being paid to workers in the UK for children living elsewhere in the EU.
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