The British people's opinion on immigration is becoming less hostile whilst the number of immigrants goes up

Peter Kellner notes what seems to be something of a paradox in the British peoples' views around immigration to the UK.

Since Brexit, the number of migrants coming to the UK has rapidly increased - by a lot. Which I’m sure is annoying to a certain type of Brexiteer. The media is constantly in a frenzy about the issue, the government makes ever more desperate promises it won’t keep whilst simultaneously attempting probably illegal and certainly immoral strategies to make it all go away.

But yet, even with all that, the British public’s hostility to immigration has tended to decline over the last few years, albeit with a slight uptick last year.

Back in the ancient pre-Brexit-referendum era of 2015, an Ipsos poll saw 67% of British public saying that they wanted to see a reduction in immigration. Last year’s update showed that figure has dropped to 49%. And the percentage of people that want to see an actual increase in immigration has more than doubled from 10% to 22%.