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More than three million migrants under Labour
More than three million foreign migrants joined the UK population under Labour’s open door on immigration, figures will confirm for the first time this week.
Britain experienced the largest influx since the Saxons during the 13 years of the last Government with migrants arriving in the UK at a rate of almost one a minute.
Enough foreign nationals to fill Birmingham three times over moved to the UK in a policy that critics have dubbed “Labour’s great betrayal”.
Up to another million are feared to be here illegally, while a million Britons left the country during the years of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
The true legacy of the last Government is exposed today in a comprehensive review by the think-tank Migrationwatch.
It has meant pressure on public services, roads, housing, schools and hospitals.
The report also shows:
:: three in four new jobs created since 1997 have been accounted for by migrant workers
:: one in four children is born to a foreign mother
:: a third of future extra households will be due to immigration
:: half a million extra foreign-born children arrived at a primary school
:: the UK population could hit 70 million within two decades, largely driven by immigration
:: research by leading demographer, Professor David Coleman of Oxford University, concluded that if immigration continues at its present level the ‘white British’ may become a minority in the UK by the late 2060s.
The study comes as an independent poll revealed three in four Britons believe immigration is a “big problem” with concerns especially growing among younger people who are facing record levels of unemployment.
Official figures on Thursday are expected to show up to 5.5 million non-UK born people arrived in the country as long term migrants between 1997 and 2010 – the equivalent of almost one every minute.
Around 2.3 million left over the same period meaning the UK population increased by around 3.2 million as a direct result of foreign migrants.
Some 80 per cent of those also came from outside the EU, dispelling the myth that the country’s ability to control inflows was restricted by the right to free movement of member states.
Most migrants came from the Indian Sub-Continent, Africa and the Middle East.
The Migrationwatch study, Immigration – Labour’s enduring legacy to Britain, said the scale of the movement is the largest seen in the UK since the waves of Saxons more than 1,000 years ago.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: “In the years to come immigration will be seen as Labour’s great betrayal.
“The sheer scale of what has occurred is changing Britain fundamentally and irrevocably and in ways the majority of the population did not ask for, were not consulted about and did not wish to see."
“When you consider that three million extra people on this island equates to the creation of three cities the size of Birmingham, seven the size of Manchester or 20 the size of Harrogate with all that that means for the pressure on our roads, railways, housing, infrastructure, the environment, schools, hospitals and the general quality of life it gives some idea of the scale of what Labour has bequeathed to us all.”
In 2009 Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett, claimed that the sharp increase in migrants over the last 10 years was partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity".
Sir Andrew said: “Immigration on a sensible scale has clear benefits but only if it is both properly controlled and limited in scale.
“It is still not entirely clear whether the outcome of the Labour years was a result of gross incompetence or some politically motivated desire to change the whole nature of our society.“
Damian Green, the immigration minister, said: "Unlimited migration has placed unacceptable pressure on our public services over the years.
"That is why we are currently carrying out major reform of the system to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands.
"We have already introduced an annual limit to the number of economic visas from outside the UK alongside new proposals to reform other routes of entry including student, marriage and settlement visas which have in the past been subject to widespread abuse."
A separate poll by Ipsos MORI yesterday found 75 per cent of people think immigration is a very or fairly big problem and two thirds are in favour of tighter controls.
With youth unemployment at its highest level since records began, half of people aged between 16 and 24 believe immigration will damage the economic recovery.
Ben Page, chief executive of Ipsos MORI, said: "For the first time we are now seeing a rise in people saying immigration is not just a problem nationally, but specifically in their own local areas.”
Damian Green, the immigration minister, said: "Unlimited migration has placed unacceptable pressure on our public services over the years.
"That is why we are currently carrying out major reform of the system to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands.
"We have already introduced an annual limit to the number of economic visas from outside the UK alongside new proposals to reform other routes of entry including student, marriage and settlement visas which have in the past been subject to widespread abuse."
Gerry Sutcliffe, shadow immigration minister, said: “This is an unbalanced, misleading and highly political report.
"Migration levels increased initially because of the strength of the British economy over many years and must be seen in the context of increases globally.
"However the most recent figures show net migration from outside the EU was coming down as a result of the new points based system and over a third of "long-term migrants" were in fact students, the vast majority of whom study, pay their fees, and then return home."
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