One migrant a minute lands in Britain

The previous government’s shambolic open-door policy is laid bare by research which shows that net migration quadrupled as a result of the influx ushered in by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

And the figures reveal that when immigration was at its peak before 2009, one immigrant legally moved to the UK every minute under a cavalier approach which was last night blasted as “Labour’s great betrayal”.

Campaign group MigrationWatch UK said the largest wave of immigration for 1,000 years is further swelled by a million if the estimated number of illegal immigrants allowed to slip into Britain is taken into account.

Sir Andrew Green, the think-tank’s chairman, said: “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.”

He said the legal introduction of 3.2 million people – three times the population of Birmingham – was increasing the pressure on “roads, railways, housing, infrastructure, the environment, schools, hospitals and the general quality of life”.

The startling picture of Labour’s failure is revealed in the most comprehensive study of immigration to date.

According to the report – “Immigration – Labour’s enduring legacy to Britain” – 80 per cent of the 3.2 million immigrants who have come to the UK came from outside the EU.

The report uses long-term international migration data from the Office for National Statistics to show that 3.2 million foreign migrants entered the UK between 1997 and 2009. In the same time period nearly a million Britons left the UK.

Net migration – the number of immigrants who arrive from a certain country minus those who return there – reached 697,000 from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh over the last decade while another 695,000 arrived from nations including China and the war-torn countries of Afghanistan and Somalia.

The figure was 299,000 for those coming from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. But it is the brutal impact of unchecked immigration on Britain’s housing, schools and employment that will be of the greatest concern to millions. Figures show that since 1997 three-quarters of the extra jobs created went to foreign-born workers while more than one third of new households will be a result of immigration, requiring 330 new homes every working day for the next 23 years.

Over the same period, an extra 500,000 children arrived in UK primary schools, most without English as their first language.

The figures come as the UK population is heading for 70 million in 20 years’ time, 68 per cent of the increase being be due to immigration. Research by one of the country’s leading demographers has concluded that if immigration continues at its present level the “white British” may become a minority in the UK by the late 2060s.

The report comes as Government introduces a series of tough new measures to cap immigration as they bid to deliver on a pre-election pledge of reducing annual numbers to “tens of thousands” by the end of parliament in 2015.

Sir Andrew added: “The Government will have to stick to their guns if they are to clear up the shambles they inherited and get a grip of developments that could change the whole nature of our society.”

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: “Unlimited migration has placed unacceptable pressure on our public services over the years. That is why we are carrying our major reform to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands.”

But Shadow Immigration Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said: “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.

“Labour introduced a tough Australian-style points-based system to ensure that only those with the skills Britain needs could come here. The Tory-led Government’s plan for a cap on migration lacks substance and credibility.”