Migration Watch UK
September 07, 2021
With the UK having witnessed the second highest daily total ever for the number of people arriving via unauthorised Channel crossings in small boats (with around 740 people entering yesterday), a YouGov tracking poll shows immigration / asylum to now be third equal as one of the top issues on voters' minds (standing at 34% - the same as the environment).
Only health and the economy had higher scores, but immigration / asylum was gaining on both, and at a steeper rate than the environment.
The 34% naming the issue was seven points higher than during the peak of illegal Channel crossings last year, when 27% cited the issue as a top concern. Just under 2,000 people were reported crossing in September 2020 but over 3,000 people were reported as arriving in both July and August 2021.
Meanwhile, immigration / asylum remains Conservative voters' number one concern (with 55% naming it - a startling rise of 24 points since the start of the year).
See the YouGov polling here:
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/the-most-important-issues-facing-the-country
Commenting, Dr Ben Greening, Executive Director of Migration Watch UK, said:
The major rise in voter concern about immigration is not surprising. Even with the humiliating failure to secure our border at the Channel and the swelling of legal arrivals through resettlement schemes, the government keeps opening new uncapped routes to enable mass immigration. Tens of millions will see this is as a betrayal of election pledges to restore control.