The dire state of British public services is alarming, characterised by skyrocketing NHS waiting lists, crumbling schools, a severe shortage of affordable housing, overcrowded prisons, a backlog of crown court cases, and deteriorating infrastructure. The Institute for Government think tank said most state services are performing worse than at the time of the 2019 election, and “substantially worse” than when the Conservatives first took office in 2010.
In an attempt to conceal the Conservative Party’s failures in maintaining our public services over the past 14 years, both the party and right-wing media outlets have frequently and unjustly blamed immigrants for the deterioration of these services.
Conservative blame game: shifting responsibility to immigrants
Examples of Conservative ministers attributing the dire state of public services to immigrants include:
- In 2013, as prime minister, David Cameron endorsed the claim that immigration was a “constant drain” on public services.
- In 2016, then employment minister, Priti Patel said that “the shortage of primary school places is yet another example of how uncontrolled migration is putting unsustainable pressures on our public services”.
- In 2017, then prime minister Theresa May said that “record levels of net migration in Britain has put pressure on public services, like schools, stretched our infrastructure, especially housing”.
- In 2022, as home secretary, Suella Braverman described the English coast as being “invaded” by asylum seekers, casting migrants as a threat to Britain and in turn its public services.
- In 2022, as prime minister, Boris Johnson stated that “uncontrolled immigration creates unmanageable demands on our NHS and our welfare state”.
- In June 2024, a month before the Conservative Party were removed from power, the party declared that “by capping migration numbers each year, we will ensure that public services are protected and housing is not overburdened”.
Media-driven hysteria: immigrants as the scapegoat for public service strains
Sections of the right-wing media have also played a role in shifting the blame for failing public services away from the Conservative Party and onto immigration. In February this year, the Daily Telegraph published an article with the subheading “rather than turbocharging growth, immigration is placing near-unbearable pressure on public services, housing and infrastructure” claiming that “non-EU migrants were a significant fiscal drain”, while another article published more recently stated that “Labour has no plan to address the pressure our open border has placed on public services, housing and infrastructure”.
Similar articles published by The Sun in May 2024 include: one with the headline “Migrant Housing crisis: Migrants coming to UK to blame for almost 90% of Britain’s housing problems”, another titled “Will our politicians ever wake up to the pressure from mass migration”, and a final article stating that “Our asylum system is broken and putting intolerable pressure on public services”.
The Daily Mail has expressed similar views. A 16 July 2024 article claimed, “Sky-high levels of immigration have heaped even more pressure on housing, schools, and the struggling NHS”, while another article from February 2024 stated “Britain couldn’t possibly handle such rapid upheaval. Our housing, schools, hospitals, and other services are already groaning under sheer weight of numbers”.
These articles published by the Daily Telegraph, the Sun, and the Daily Mail, alongside the statements made by Conservative politicians collectively paint a picture of immigration and asylum as sources of major problems for the UK. They contribute to a narrative that positions migrants and asylum seekers as significant burdens on housing, public services, and overall societal stability. This framing can influence public opinion by highlighting the perceived negative impacts of immigration without acknowledging potential benefits or broader contextual factors, thereby contributing to a more hostile and negative perception of immigrants and asylum seekers among the general public.
The truth behind Britain’s broken services
Britain’s public services are in their current state primarily due to years of chronic underfunding, austerity measures, and policy failures – not because of immigration. Studies have consistently shown that immigrants contribute positively to the economy, which can help sustain and support public services rather than overrun them.
An NHS on its knees
While it is true that an increase in population places additional demand on healthcare services, the impact of immigration on the NHS is often exaggerated. Research shows that migrants’ financial impact on the NHS is actually minimal, especially when accounting for the taxes and surcharges they pay. Furthermore, migrants generally use healthcare services less frequently than the UK-born population, as they tend to be younger and healthier, with one study revealing that healthcare utilisation among migrants is up to 40% lower than that of UK-born individuals.
Migrants also form a vital part of the NHS workforce, with recent NHS data showing that across all NHS staff in England, more than 17% are from overseas. This figure shows that migrants are not “heaping pressure … on a struggling NHS” as one Daily Mail article claimed, but rather are playing a significant role in keeping it running.
The primary reason the NHS is in its current state is due to over a decade of chronic underfunding by the Conservative government. Many international studies have found that the effective performance of any health system depends primarily on two things: the money it gets and the staff it has. For over a decade, the NHS has been chronically underfunded and understaffed due to the Conservative government’s austerity measures, imposed in response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis.
Health economists say that to maintain a high-performing system, the NHS needs an annual budget increase of at least 4%. During the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition from 2010 to 2015, the NHS only received annual budget increases of 1.1%. From 2015 to 2018, the NHS was given slightly more, with annual increases of just 1.7%.
Chronic underinvestment has strained resources, leading to longer waiting times for patients and deteriorating infrastructure. One study has found that during the austerity years, hospital bed numbers continued to be cut to the point where the UK now has fewer beds per capita than almost any developed nation. Compounding these issues are recruitment and retention difficulties, resulting in critical staff shortages that affect the quality and availability of care.
Housing crisis
While there is a connection between immigration and the housing crisis, claims made by some newspapers and Conservatives that immigration is the primary cause are inaccurate. The primary driver of the crisis is a significant shortage of housing supply. Over the past decade, the rate of new housing construction has not kept pace with the growing population, driven by immigration, births, and longer life expectancy.
Reports indicate that in some areas, only one new home was built for every ten new residents between 2011 and 2021. This supply-demand imbalance has led to skyrocketing housing prices and increased rental costs, making home ownership and affordable housing increasingly out of reach for many Britons.
In addition to the supply issue, there has been a substantial reduction in social housing with stock decreasing by 300,000 units since 2010. This reduction is due to schemes such as ‘Help to Buy’ brought in by the Conservative Party and austerity cuts to social housing funding. The decline in the amount of social housing available has exacerbated the affordability crisis, as fewer options are available for low-income families and individuals.
Clearly, the UK’s housing crisis is a complex issue with several interconnected factors and it is misleading for newspapers and politicians to suggest that immigration is primarily to blame.
Don’t fall for the myths about immigrants
In summary, the claim that immigrants are the primary cause of the UK’s beleaguered public services is a misleading narrative propagated by certain media outlets and politicians seeking to deflect attention from the Conservative Party’s own shortcomings. It is clear from the recent far-right and Islamophobic riots in the UK that perpetuating these myths is not only irresponsible, given their inaccuracy, but also very dangerous. It is dangerous because by portraying immigrants as a burden or threat, it can legitimise xenophobic and racist sentiments, which can then, as we have seen, quickly lead to civil unrest, particularly in communities already facing economic hardship.
It’s time that politicians and sections of the British press stop using migrants as scapegoats for the challenges the UK faces, and refrain from propagating hateful and inflammatory rhetoric against the most vulnerable people in the UK.
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