• The return of large-scale Irish immigration as Britain's economy surges ahead, with 19,300 Irish nationals registering for NI numbers last year compared with 10,000 or less before the global crash.  • Italians are now the second-largest group of new arrivals, overtaking the Spanish.  • The highest number of Greeks came to Britain since at least 2002, with 10,500 new arrivals last year, up 17 per cent year-on-year.  • French nationals are coming here in bigger than ever before numbers – with 28,000 arriving last year, up 25 per cent year-on-year and 112 per cent in a decade.  Anyone from an EU country is able to apply for a NI number in Britain and uptake is one of the most reliable indicators of immigration because even the self-employed need a number to work.  Registrations from Bulgaria – whose citizens won full access to the British job market at the same time as Romanians at the start of last year – also rose starkly.  There were 17,800 arrivals from Bulgaria in 2013/14 compared with 40,600 last year, an increase of nearly 28 per cent and the highest number on record.  Poles accounted for nearly 116,000 of the total but saw a less pronounced increase year-on-year, with a 13 per cent rise.  The total number of Poles was far below the 2006/07 peak of 220,000.  The number of Italians registering for NI numbers rose from 42,000 to a record 57,600, a 37 per cent increase.  Spanish registrations rose from 46,000 to 54,000, a rise of nearly 19 per cent and a new high.  It comes after Oxford University's Migration Observatory predicted that separate immigration figures published this week would show that eight million people born aborad now live in Britain.  A further set of data on net migration figures - the difference between those arriving in the UK minus those emigrating - is also likely to show a rise despite ministers' pledge to cut it to "tens of thousands".  A Government spokesman said: “The British public are rightly concerned that people come to this country for the right reasons.  “This Government has led the way with a series of measures to tackle abuses, tighten immigration routes, and toughen up the rules on access to UK benefits.  “A National Insurance number does not mean someone can automatically claim benefits or get a job.”  The Government is planning further reforms so that EU migrants will not be able to access benefits whilst in work until they have lived here and contributed to our economy for a minimum of four years.  Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of MigrationWatch UK, which campaigns for tighter immigration controls, said: "The very large numbers of NI numbers issued to people coming here from abroad are quite remarkable.  "From some countries very many more have been issued than the numbers of people we are told are in the UK.  "This highlights the importance of reintroducing exit checks and proper matching up of records across government.  "Meanwhile, it is hard to be confident that we have the full picture of what is actually happening."
Government figures, obtained by The Telegraph ahead of this week's official   immigration data, show huge rises in numbers coming from European Union to   work in Britain