British pick up 'cheeky' Brexit story

The Telegraph said the Herald "cheekily" pointed out why it's better living in New Zealand.

British newspaper The Telegraph has labelled the New Zealand Herald's coverage of the increase of Brits interested in moving to New Zealand after the Brexit referendum as "cheeky".

Yesterday the Herald ran a front-page story about the boost in Immigration New Zealand registrations from Great Britain that has since been picked up by The Telegraph and The Guardian.

More than 10,500 registrations from people considering moving here from Britain have been lodged with Immigration since the Brexit vote.

The day of the Brexit vote Immigration got 998 British registrations, compared with 109 the day before the vote. In 49 days after the vote, there were 10,647 registrations from the UK compared with 4599 over the same period last year.

Today the Telegraph reported on the story saying: "New Zealand has raised fears of a 'British invasion' after receiving a post-Brexit rush of interest from would-be migrants, including a tenfold increase on the day of the vote.

"The show of interest appeared to delight the local media, with The New Zealand Herald cheekily noting that New Zealand has better weather, no traffic, a rugby team that 'actually plays rugby', and was 'more than 18,000 km from Boris Johnson'."

The Guardian also followed the story with the headline: "Brexit sparks rush for New Zealand as emigration inquiries hit record high".