The government has promised to cut net migration - the difference between the numbers entering and leaving the UK.Today's figures will intensify debates over the role of overseas workers into the UK economy and wider labour market - weeks after Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she wanted to resurrect a repeatedly missed government target to reduce net migration to below 100,000.That aim, set by former prime minister David Cameron and supported by Theresa May, was dropped by Boris Johnson who said he would reduce the level while ensuring businesses had access to the skills they needed.Labour's shadow justice minister Ellie Reeves told BBC Politics Live the figures were "pretty shocking" and a sign the government had "completely lost control over who was coming here".Madeleine Sumption, director of Oxford University's politically independent Migration Observatory research unit, said:: "All the forecasts suggested that migration would fall as a result of the post-Brexit immigration scheme, which greatly restricted the options for EU citizens to move to the UK - and indeed, EU net migration remains negative."