Labour's lies on immigration

During the election campaign the Labour mantra was that immigration was now under control thanks to the introduction of their points system. This line was used to close down the debate and to avoid having to explain why immigration levels had risen so much over the first 12 years of this Labour government. The election has now been and gone and we read in The Mail that (my emphasis):

'Labour's supposedly tough points-based immigration system actually led to huge increases in foreign workers and students cleared to live in Britain, it emerged last night.

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... analysis published last night showed that, in fact, it increased by 20 per cent - while the number of foreign students went up by more than 30 per cent.

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Figures released by the Office for National Statistics last week showed net immigration had increased the total population by 142,000 last year.

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Migrationwatch said Labour ministers had been asked parliamentary questions on the effects of the points system but had not given answers ahead of the election.

However, analysis of fresh government figures shows that the number of non-EU migrants given work permits, or permission to carry on working in Britain, increased by 20 per cent, from 159,535 in 2007 - the year before points were introduced - to 190,640 last year. The total includes dependents.

For students, which came under the points system a year later in 2008, the number of approvals increased by 31 per cent from 208,800 that year to 273,445 a year later.


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In 2008, Phil Woolas said that 'had we introduced the points-based system a year ago there would be 12 per cent less migratory workers in the country than there are now'.

During the election campaign, Gordon Brown said: 'I think we have got to show people that we are taking tough action and the points-based system we have introduced is changing things. I hope that voters understand that we have got a very tough attitude on this.'

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics last week showed that more than half the 503,000 immigrants who arrived in the year to last September - 270,000 people - were from outside the EU.

At the same time, the number of foreign nationals given British citizenship rose above 200,000 in 2009 - up more than 50 per cent in 12 months.

The ONS also published projections showing the national population will hit 70million in 2029.'

So did Gordon Brown and Phil Woolas deliberately mislead the British public before & during the general election campaign over immigration control? Is it true that Labour deliberately increased immigration so as to 'rub the Right's nose in diversity' as Andrew Teather claimed and to increase their client vote as many others have claimed?

Unsurprisingly I can find no mention of these immigration figures on the BBC news website, indeed the latest news article that comes up on a search for 'immigration' on their website is this report that:

'Detainees at Dover's Immigration Removal Centre are being held for "unacceptably long" periods of time, according to a report.'

The BBC's political agenda becomes clearer by the day and the time for retribution must surely approach.