{"id":288,"date":"2011-02-22T09:19:41","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T09:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"\/2011\/02\/22\/immigration-under-labour-chaos-or-conspiracy\/"},"modified":"2011-02-22T09:19:41","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T09:19:41","slug":"immigration-under-labour-chaos-or-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.migrationwatchuk.org\/news\/2011\/02\/22\/immigration-under-labour-chaos-or-conspiracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration Under Labour \u2013 Chaos or Conspiracy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Figures due out on Thursday will, for the first time, officially confirm that net foreign immigration under Labour exceeded three million.<\/p>\n

This is the context for a detailed indictment of the Labour Government\u2019s record on immigration published today in Briefing Paper No 11.24<\/a>. It forensically examines one of the most significant and far reaching changes ever imposed on the fabric of Britain – despite the wishes of the vast majority of its citizens.<\/p>\n

The document, \u2018Immigration \u2013 Labour\u2019s enduring legacy to Britain\u2019<\/em><\/strong> – from think-tank Migration Watch, has brought together the principal facts and figures resulting from the largest wave of immigration for nearly a thousand years.<\/p>\n

Migration Watch was one of the few voices consistently raised in opposition to mass immigration during the Blair and Brown years and was regularly vilified by Labour politicians and the immigration lobby.<\/p>\n

Now we find that, as the Labour supporting Institute of Public Policy Research recently put it; \u201cIt is no exaggeration to say that immigration under New Labour has changed the face of the country.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018We would agree, 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,\u2019 said Migration Watch chairman, Sir Andrew Green. \u2018Urgent action is needed to place firm limits on any further immigration\u2019<\/p>\n

The report shows that in the years before Blair\u2019s government net immigration was running at around 50,000 a year, but in 1997 the floodgates were opened and numbers quadrupled with the result that over three million migrants came to Britain and stayed here plus, perhaps, a further one million who came and stayed illegally. At the same time nearly a million British citizens left the country.<\/p>\n

This is in sharp contrast to Labour\u2019s 1997 election manifesto which declared that \u201cEvery country must have firm control over immigration and Britain is no exception.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018This has been a clear failure of democracy due in large part to the left\u2019s deliberate tactic of stifling reasoned debate with accusations of racism,\u2019 said Sir Andrew, \u2018 In the years to come immigration will be seen as Labour\u2019s great betrayal.\u2019<\/p>\n

He added that the raw statistics were difficult to envisage.<\/p>\n

\u2018But 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.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the key headlines from the report are:<\/p>\n