More than 80 per cent of the rise in Britain's population between 2001 and 2016 was because of migration, a new analysis has found.

Migration Watch UK said that 3.1million migrants had come to the UK over that period and 2.5million children had at least one parent who was born abroad.

When adjusted for migrants who had died, the figures suggest that 5.4million of the 6.6million increase in the UK's population over that period.

The campaign group said that the paper "shines a light on the elephant in the room" Migration Watch used data on births to foreign-born parents and estimates of deaths of children of migrants to calculate the "indirect contribution" of immigration to population change.