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Labour knew immigration was out of control seven years ago, says former minister
Labour knew that immigrants were flooding into Britain in far higher numbers than anticipated by 2005, former home office minister John Denham admitted today. Mr Denham, who is now permanent private secretary to Ed Miliband, the Labour Leader, said it was clear seven years ago that estimates for migrants were 'vastly wrong.' The Labour MP for Southampton said: "We were advised about 15,000 and about that came to Southampton alone in the first 18 months." Asked when he was first aware of the problem he added: "I think for me in really 2005. It was then it became clear that the estimates we relied on were vastly wrong. What we are acknowledging today is that far more people came in far more quickly than people anticipated." The last Labour government oversaw a liberal immigration policy that led to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of workers from eastern Europe. In 2004 when the European Union expanded to take in Poland and other eastern states, the UK decided not to impose any restrictions on the arrival of citizens from those countries. But Mr Denham refused to say there were too many immigrants coming to Britain. The former chair of the Home Affairs Select Committe replied: "That's not the issue we've been talking about today. I think there is a debate and a discussion still to be had about the numbers overall that you have in a country." Today Mr Miliband will admit in a speech that Labour got it wrong on immigration. The Labour leader will say that while middle-class households benefited from mass immigration to Britain their working class counterparts suffered. Mr Miliband will admit that the influx of cheap workers had been good for the middle classes who wanted a new conservatory but bad for the British labourers who built them.
Posted by: 2012-06-22 |
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