Net migration to the UK dropped by 69 percent to 204,000 in the year to June, official figures showed on Thursday, in a much-needed boost to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The continued downward trend comes as Starmer's centre-left Labour government is under increasing pressure from the hard-right anti-immigration Reform UK party on the issue.

The figures, which do not include migrant arrivals via highly contentious irregular routes such as cross-Channel small boat journeys, were driven by several factors.

They include fewer non-European Union nationals and their dependants coming to the UK to work and study and more Britons emigrating, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The latest provisional net migration figures -- the difference between the numbers of people arriv

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