IT is too early to tell what effect Brexit has had on migrant worker numbers despite figures showing a 50,000 increase in eastern Europeans, according to Oxford University.

Oxford's Migration Observatory - based in Banbury Road - played down government figures revealing an increase in EU workers coming to the country from eight eastern European nations. 

But the same employment figures showed a drop in migrant workers coming from Italy, Portugal, Spain and France since the EU vote on June 23.

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford  said: "While we are all keen to read the tea leaves of the employment statistics to get some clues about how migrants are responding to Brexit, the figures don't yet provide a clear picture.

"There is no evidence at this point of either an increase or decrease in EU migration or employment due to Brexit.

"In fact, it could be many months before there is enough data to get a good sense of whether migration has changed meaningfully following the referendum."

But Lord Green of Deddington, in Oxfordshire, and chairman of campaign group Migration Watch UK, said: "This is yet another large increase in the labour force driven by an increase in foreign workers.

"That increase amounts to just over a million in three years.

"This continuing influx helps explain why the British people voted for Brexit and is a sharp reminder that the forthcoming negotiations must get these numbers down."