OPINION: People are just realising that we had a better grip on immigration within the EU

It was, in many ways, a symbiotic relationship. We got bar staff, waiters, plumbers and electricians who filled vital gaps in our workforce. They got a higher wage for a few years’ graft. And we got to bask in their countries’ hospitality when our leathery-skinned pensioners retired to the Costa del Sol, where they happily spent their British pensions and bolstered local economies. Everyone won.

But that nuance was lost amid the hysteria of the referendum campaign. EU migration was painted as uncontrolled and permanent, when in reality it was fluid and self-regulating. The proximity of the continent meant people could - and did - move back and forth with relative ease. That’s not true when your migration policy pivots toward countries thousands of miles away.

Immigration from further afield, by its nature, tends to be more permanent. If you’ve uprooted your life from Nigeria, India or the Philippines, you’re not likely to come for six months and go home again. You’ll bring your family, put down roots, and make a long-term commitment to a new country. That’s not a bad thing in itself - but it’s a different kind of migration, and one that’s far less responsive to economic shifts.

The Brexit promise was that we’d replace EU migration with a “smarter” global system that met the country’s needs. Instead, we’ve created a more rigid model that’s harder to control in practice. Employers are still desperate for workers, but the government’s visa rules make short-term labour expensive and bureaucratic. Sectors like hospitality and agriculture - once sustained by flexible European workers - are now struggling to cope.

So when Farage rails against the latest migration figures, he’s railing against a monster of his own making. The EU didn’t impose uncontrolled immigration on us; it offered a framework that reflected geography, economics and reality. It let people move when there was work and return home when there wasn’t. That’s control - just not the sort that fits neatly on a campaign bus.

Now we’ve swapped a system that worked for one that doesn’t, all in the name of sovereignty. The result? Higher immigration, not less. Fewer tools to manage it, not more. And the belated realisation, whispered even among some Brexiteers, that we once had a better grip on the very thing they swore to fix.