BBC corrects Today programme net migration claim following Full Fact intervention
The BBC has corrected a claim made on Radio 4’s Today programme following a request from Full Fact.
During an interview on 13 May with home secretary Yvette Cooper, presenter Nick Robinson referred to figures about projected net migration and suggested they took into account the latest measures announced by the Home Office.
He said: “It’ll still be the case after all of this is done, won’t it, that net migration to this country is in the hundreds of thousands, according to the Office for National Statistics, potentially above half a million a year, even after every single one of these measures is taken”.
He then added shortly after: “One estimate of the total of the Office for National Statistics is 340,000, that is more than three or four times what it was when Labour left power. Another estimate comes at 525,000.”
As our blog explained, these figures were published by the ONS in January 2025, and did not account for the new immigration restrictions announced by the government last month.
In a correction published on 5 June the BBC acknowledged this fact, adding: “We believe it was valid to question the Home Secretary about whether even after her measures migration to the UK would still be in the hundreds of thousands.”
We’re grateful to the BBC for making this correction.