Warning over 'exodus' of nurses as EU migration falls to five-year low

Pro-EU campaigners have warned of an exodus of nurses and midwives as official figures revealed net migration from the EU to the UK has fallen to its lowest level in nearly five years.

An estimated 101,000 more people from the bloc arrived than left in 2017, according to the first data for a full calendar year since the Brexit vote.

The latest figure is the lowest for any 12-month period since the year to March 2013, when it stood at 95,000.

Overall net migration - the difference between the numbers of people arriving and departing for at least 12 months and including non-EU nationals - was around 282,000 in 2017.

This was up by 33,000 on the previous year, but statisticians attributed the rise to an "unusual pattern" in estimates of non-EU student immigration for 2016 which research indicates was an "anomaly".

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It came as analysis of NHS staffing figures by the People’s Vote campaign showed that 1,400 midwives and nurses from EU member states have left the health service since the Brexit vote.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council revealed in March that almost 4,000 EEA health staff left their register in the previous year, with 47% citing Brexit as one of their main reasons for leaving the UK.

Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “These figures should be a wakeup call to anyone who loves our NHS. It’s now clear that the staffing crisis in our health service is made worse by Brexit, not better as we were told.

“Our NHS needs more midwives and other healthcare professionals from EU countries, not fewer – but since the referendum we are now sadly seeing people leaving. Not a day goes by without new facts emerging that show the Brexit people were promised can simply not be delivered.”

Ms Walton, whose organisation has backed a so-called People’s Vote on the terms of the UK’s Brexit deal, said it should be “the people, not politicians” who decide if leaving the EU “is right for our health service”.