Immigration controls are a joke

The Prime Minister – delivering his first speech on immigration – insisted his Government was finally getting a grip and reducing the surge of newcomers heading to Britain.

“Do I get it? Yes, I get it. I have been listening and I understand and I am announcing new changes,” he said yesterday.

But his speech, glossing over a decade of mass immigration under Labour, ignited a fresh wave of anger over the Government’s refusal to heed warnings about the massive strain on public services caused by a population soaring towards 70 million.

And ministers’ “catastrophic” failure to control Britain’s borders was starkly exposed again yesterday when it emerged that convicted foreign criminals are routinely walking free from an immigration removal centre in Kent.

New figures revealed that overseas-born offenders were released from Dover Immigration Centre at the rate of one every day during last July. The Home Office refused to provide information for other months.

The astonishing statistic – released from the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act – led to the Government’s policy on immigration being branded “a joke”. Mr Brown’s speech was greeted by

widespread condemnation last night. Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the population think-tank MigrationWatch, said: “The Prime Minister is still in deep denial about the population crisis which we now face. His Government has brought three million immigrants to Britain and they will add another seven million to our population in the next 25 years.

“In this context the measures, largely re-announced, in his speech are trivial. This is totally unacceptable.”

Mr Brown said that more professions, including hospital consultants, civil engineers and ships’ officers, are to be added to the list of jobs that can no longer be recruited from abroad. He also announced an overhaul of the student visa system.

But the Prime Minister failed to echo Home Secretary Alan Johnson’s confession that Labour has made a string of mistakes over immigration.

In his speech, Mr Brown said: “We favour a tough but fair approach rooted in a points system under which we decide what categories of skills are to be allowed into the country.

“This combines the flexibility and control that is right, with a continued commitment to strong borders, and the rigorous enforcement of laws against illegal immigration.”

Mr Brown wanted to “celebrate diversity” and insisted mass immigration had boosted the economy, while acknowledging local services were being over-stretched in some parts of the country.

He claimed the Government’s points-based system for assessing whether skilled migrants were needed in Britain had reduced immigration by 44 per cent over the last year, although the drop had coincided with the economic downturn.

And he signalled that more jobs, including chefs and care workers, are likely to be removed from the list next year.

“Over the coming months we will remove more occupations and therefore thousands more posts from the list of those eligible for entry under the points-based system,” Mr Brown said.

“As growth returns, I want to see rising levels of skills, wages and employment among those resident here, rather than employers having to resort to recruiting people from abroad,” he said.

Mr Brown fuelled anger by brushing aside complaints that critics of Labour’s open-door immigration policy have been smeared as “racist.” He said: “I have never agreed with the lazy elitism that dismisses immigration as an issue, or portrays anyone who has concerns about immigration as a racist.”

Mr Brown also risked incredulity by claiming Britain’s population will not hit 70million because of the points system “that is now being tightened”.

However, an Office for National Statistics report recently forecast that the population will hit 70million within 20 years, even taking into account the points-based system.

Mr Brown’s rare foray into the subject of immigration was savaged by a string of critics last night.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling denounced the Prime Minister’s speech as “empty rhetoric.” He said: “Gordon Brown’s speech had a completely hollow ring to it. This is the Government that tried to cover up a deliberate policy of increasing immigration and the Prime Minister’s comments show he has no idea about how to deal with the whole question of immigration.”

Former Labour Welfare Minister Frank Field and senior Tory backbencher Nicholas Soames, co-chairmen of the Commons Cross Party Group for Balanced Migration, said: in a statement: “While the Government is right to split economic migration from permanent settlement, it is clear that the Prime Minister misses the big picture.

“The points-based system has no limit, affects just 20 per cent of immigration and will not stop the UK’s population hitting 70million in 2029.

“What is needed is a clear political commitment to make a very substantial reduction in immigration. In his four thousand-word speech, the Prime Minister has entirely avoided this central issue.” Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “Gordon Brown is attempting to shut the stable door long after the horse has bolted.

“His Government’s catastrophic mismanagement of the system has undermined this country’s liberal attitude towards immigration.”

David Frost, of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “There needs to be active political debate about the additional infrastructure that will be needed to accommodate this population growth.”

Home Office figures released under the Freedom of Information Act yesterday showed that 30 convicted criminals were allowed to walk away from the Western Heights immigration facility, housed in a former fortress in Dover, in July.

Shadow immigration minister Damian Green said: “It is a joke, calling this an Immigration Removal Centre. In this case, the effect is to make the streets of Kent less safe. More than three years since the foreign prisoner crisis, this admission shows that Gordon Brown’s promise of automatic deportation for foreign prisoners at the end of their sentence was just spin.”

The July figures show that a total of 56 detainees left the immigration centre on “temporary admission to the UK or on bail”.