Gail Downey: UK Correspondent on the UK's population being expected to increase over next 7 years

The UK’s population is set to skyrocket. 

Net migration is expected to increase the population to 72.5 million in the next seven years – an addition of almost ten million people. 

UK Correspondent Gail Downey told Andrew Dickens the statistics also reveal that almost 5 million people are leaving the country to live elsewhere. 

She says the government wants to bring down the high migration levels, but won't put an arbitrary cap on the number of people coming in. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The UK. We go and Gale down and joins us Hellegale.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hello Andrew, well knit.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Migration is increasing the population to seventy two and a
half a million in the next seven years. That's the
next to ten million people. You're booming.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
We are booming and the projective figures come from the
Office of National Statistics, which also reveal almost five million
people are leaving the country to live elsewhere, so that's
ten million in and five million out. The government says
it wants to bring down the staggeringly high levels of migration,
but it won't put an arbitrary cap on the numbers
of people coming in. England is expected to have the

(00:36):
highest number of immigrants, with Northern Ireland the lowest. The
number of births and deaths between twenty twenty two and
twenty thirty two is expected to be equal, but there
will be one point seven million more pensioners now. Concern
has been raised by opposition MPs. The Shadow Home Secretary
Chris Philip so the number immigrating long term to the

(00:56):
UK was shocking and unacceptable. A government spokes and said
they would link immigration skills and visas to grow the
domestic workforce and end the reliance on overseas labor and
boost economic growth.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Have you got enough houses?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, that's the big thing. And of course at the
moment the government is looking at how ways of encouraging
developers to build more houses, which is fine except that
many people don't want the houses in their backyard.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
No kidding, all right. So the AMAB bombing in Northern Ireland,
when did that happen?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Oh, that was back in nineteen eighty eight.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Forgive me, I figured the last interest are quite a
way away before.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
The peace Sorry apologies, it was actually before the Good
Friday Agreement, which it was just after the Good Friday Agreement,
which was the signing of a peace deal which brought
to an end decades of violence known as the Troubles.
So it was just you know, say it was four
months after that was signed.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
So with having acquire an inquiry, an awful long time
after the fact that you have to say we're having
an inquiry into the bombing in Northern Ireland. It killed
twenty nine people and the attack was under the real
IRA was the worst atrocity of the Troubles. What can
we report from today, Well.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
What we know today is that two Spanish students were
killed in the bombing. They've been visiting the town of
Omar on a language exchange group and written testimony was
heard from the families giving a bit of background about them,
about their personalities. We know that family members of other
victims are expected to give evidence either in person or

(02:41):
through their lawyers during the four week hearing. And as
you mentioned, it's been a long time since that happened
to now and the inquiry is to determine whether the
bombing could have been prevented and the handling and sharing
of intelligence at the time by state authorities.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
That'sy good stuff, Gail Downey. I thank you so much.
That is Gail Downey reporting for US out of the
United Kingdom and.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
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