Jonathan Portes

@jdportes.bsky.social

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Professor of Economics and Public Policy, King's College London; Senior Fellow, UK in a Changing Europe. Immigration, economics, public policy. Personal views only; usual disclaimers apply. Books: Immigration (Sage), Capitalism (Quercus)

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Jonathan Portes·Aug 27

The Times editorial line: "sieve" the entire population so we can put 100s of thousands of people into camps. "Removing a city’s worth of people would be an extended exercise. Identity cards would be a must if the population was to be sieved into legitimate and illegitimate camps" archive.ph/78dcP

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Jonathan Portes·Sep 15

"You can be English with roots that stretch back a 1,000 years, but you can also be English and look like me". About time. Need much more of this, and need the PM to come out and say it and challenge the politicians and media who've brought us here - not just Musk www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Latest posts

Jonathan Portes·6h

"Control without credibility" My attempt at a history of the politics and economics of immigration to the UK since the Brexit referendum, and a look to the future www.iza.org/publications...

Jonathan Portes·7h

The impact of Brexit on UK immigration - new research by @johnspringford.bsky.social & me for @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social & @ukandeu.bsky.social Brexit a) reduced EU-origin employees by 785K (2.3% of workforce) b) increased non-EU origin employees by 992K (2.95%) www.cer.eu/insights/imp...

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Jonathan Portes·1d

Welcome endorsement for Mahmood's fictional numbers/false claims from @rcolvile.bsky.social, who of course had to pull his own "research" when it turned out to contain fictional numbers and false claims... archive.ph/fMiWc

peaking to a left-wing think tank, the home secretary argued that the sheer scale of low-skilled migration in recent years — including the vast, fraud-ridden expansion of the health and care visa — will not only be a substantial fiscal negative for the country, but is deeply unfair for the existing working class, who will find themselves paying not just through their taxes but via pressure on social housing and NHS waiting lists. “It is essential,” she argued, “that the privilege of living in this country for ever is earned, and not automatic.”

Jonathan Portes·1d

As @chrisgrey.bsky.social says, rejecting Mahmood's plans would not be a "lurch to the left" but simply about restoring a basic level of (economic, political and administrative) competence. chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/03/real...

The competence issue matters because what is at stake here is not, as many commentators claim and, no doubt, some political activists and voters hope, that Labour need to respond to the by-election defeat with a ‘lurch to the left’. Setting an immigration policy which is fair, rational, and consonant with economic and demographic needs is not, in itself, ‘left-wing’. Operating an efficient and humane asylum process is not, in itself, ‘left-wing’. Making a clear distinction between immigration and asylum policies is not, in itself, ‘left-wing’. To think otherwise is to cede the idea that these are somehow ‘extreme’ propositions and that the policies of virtually zero immigration, mass deportation, and the near-total rejection of asylum seekers advocated by Reform and others are the ‘norm’ or ‘moderate’.

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