On 31/10/2011 05:35,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx rh 6:42PM BST 23 Oct 2009 Ed Miliband has told me that his party "got it wrong in a number of respects" over immigration and identified the issue as one reason the party "lost trust particularly in the south of England". However, he insisted that his friend and former speechwriter Lord Glasman was wrong to say that Labour had lied about the extent of immigration. I travelled to Dover and Gravesend yesterday with Labour's leader - both places where Labour's vote collapsed by the end of its time in government. Asked why that had happened Mr Miliband said: "I think the problem is that we lost trust and we lost touch particularly in the south of England. I think living standards is a big part of it, immigration is a big part too. I think maybe a combination of those two issues - most importantly." I also asked him to respond to the comments of Maurice Glasman who he recently ennobled and who wrote in Progress magazine that "Labour lied to people about the extent of immigration and the extent of illegal immigration and there's been a massive rupture of trust." He said: When I put to him Lord Glasman's suggestion that Labour had been "hostile to the English working classes" he paused and then changed the subject. My sense is that he may well share that analysis. This is not the first occasion Ed Miliband has spoken of Labour mistakes on immigration. In his leadership campaign he spoke about the drop in people's wages due to the interaction of migration with flexible labour markets. But the timing of these comments - in the midst of an election campaign and just days after David Cameron's own pitch to limit immigration from outside the EU to the "tens of thousands" - and his unwillingness to challenge Maurice Glasman's critique makes them especially interesting. The question is whether his promises of more training, apprenticeships and a living wage will re-connect Labour with the working class supporters who have abandoned it. --- Here is the transcript of my interview with Ed Miliband: NR: Southern seats seen massive drops in Labour support in recent years - what's the problem? EM: I think the problem is that we lost trust and we lost touch particularly in the south of England. I think living standards is a big part of it, immigration is a big part too. I think maybe a combination of those two issues - most importantly. So that people were seeing people coming into the country, worrying about their own standards of living which weren't going up as they had been in the first part of the decade and holding us responsible for it. NR: You mentioned immigration. A friend of yours, former speechwriter, Maurice Glasman said Labour lied to people about the extent of immigration? EM: I don't think we lied but I do think we got it wrong in a number of respects. I think that first of all we clearly underestimated the number of people coming in from Poland and that had more of an effect therefore than we would otherwise would have thought. And secondly, I think there's this really important issue about people coming into the country and the pressures on people's wages. People aren't prejudiced but people say to me look I'm worried about the pressure on my wages of people coming into this country, I'm worried about what it does to housing supply - all those issues. Now some of that is real and some of it isn't but I think you have to address not just tough immigration policy but underlying issues as well. NR: But as he said - and you know him well - as he said to you let's be honest about this Ed you lied about it? EM: Well, err, the first time I saw it was when he said it - I don't think we did lie. I don't think that's the right thing to say. NR: But did you mis-lead - if not deliberately. (EM interjects: no, no) Did people get the impression immigration was much lower than it turned out to be? EM: Well no, I think people actually thought it was the opposite. I think what happened was that we thought there would be a certain number of people coming into the country from Poland - it turned out to be much larger - it did have an affect. And it's something I said very much during my leadership campaign. And look it's part of my leadership Nick - I'm not going to go round saying everything the last Labour government did was right - I think it was a good government, I think it made our country stronger and fairer in a number of respects but I think we got some things wrong as well. NR: But his analysis and he used to write speeches for you - Labour were "hostile" to the English working classes - that you treated that anxiety about immigration as if sometimes it was racism or bigotry or ignorance and I sense you share a bit of that concern? EM: Well, look I would say we, we, we did realise the scale of the problem. We talked about the points based system for immigration - we made that one of our key priorities. I think it's this mix of immigration and the impact on living standards. I think that's what.... we were still saying let's have flexible labour markets, maximum flexibility at work and that was, that was causing problems for people and that's why we need to re-think. NR: But if your message to people is not look we don't want anybody to come to this country but we can help you in other ways what are you driving at with people? If they're saying to you we can't get jobs, I stopped a builder you passed there - we can't get jobs he said to me - I've been unemployed but I'm skilled. What is Labour saying to them if it's not saying we'll stop the immigration? EM: Well let me give you a practical example, we said before the budget have a bankers' bonus tax and put the young unemployed back to work, get the housing industry moving, help support enterprise - practical differences, practical things that we could have done. I think the thing this government is getting wrong on immigration is that they've got big promises which I don't think are going to be matched by reality but they're not dealing with those underlying economic issues which I think caused a lot of the concern that people had. 7:00PM BST 29 Oct 2011That NuLabour “mistake” over mass immigration wasn’t a mistake non-shock
Robert Henderson
Since they lost the 2010 election, the Labour Party have been religiously spinning the line that the massive immigration they presided over during their 13 years in office was a mistake. A favourite ploy is to try to concentrate all the admission of failure on the decision to allow the entry of the better part of a million migrants from Eastern Europe when new entrants were admitted to the EU. Labour’s new leader Ed Miliband was at it in September 2011. Asked by Nick Robinson of the BBC whether Labour had lied about immigration, Miliband said
“I don’t think we lied but I do think we got it wrong in a number of respects. I think that first of all we clearly underestimated the number of people coming in from Poland and that had more of an effect therefore than we would otherwise have thought. And secondly, I think there’s this really important issue about people coming into the country and the pressures on people’s wages. People aren’t prejudiced but people say to me look I’m worried about the pressure on my wages of people coming into this country, I’m worried about what it does to housing supply – all those issues. Now some of that is real and some of it isn’t but I think you have to address not just tough immigration policy but underlying issues as well.”
Read more at
http://livinginamadhouse.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/that-nulabour-mistake-over-mass-immigration-wasnt-a-mistake-non-shock/Note: This completely capsises NuLabour's claim that the massive net immigration after 1997 was a mistake and supports the claim made in Andrew Neather's email which was leaked in 2009 - see second story down - that it was deliberate NuLabour policy. RH
Blair defends opening the door to mass migration and says it had a very positive impact on Britain
Labour threw open Britain's borders to mass immigration to help socially engineer a "truly multicultural" country, a former Government adviser has revealed.
Ed Miliband: 'We got it wrong on immigration'
"I don't think we lied but I do think we got it wrong in a number of respects. I think that first of all we clearly underestimated the number of people coming in from Poland and that had more of an effect therefore than we would otherwise have thought. And secondly, I think there's this really important issue about people coming into the country and the pressures on people's wages. People aren't prejudiced but people say to me look I'm worried about the pressure on my wages of people coming into this country, I'm worried about what it does to housing supply - all those issues. Now some of that is real and some of it isn't but I think you have to address not just tough immigration policy but underlying issues as well."
For overcrowded England, there is no turning back
Migration is adding a million people to the UK’s population every five years .
Monday, 31 October 2011
Last updated at 1:39 AM on 29th October 2011
'It's been a very positive thing': Tony Blair has defended Labour's mass immigration policy, saying it made the country stronger
Tony Blair has defended Labour’s controversial mass immigration policy by claiming that Britain cannot succeed unless it opens its borders to more people from different backgrounds.
The former prime minister said it was 'right’ that the country was made up of different cultures and faiths mixing together.
Mr Blair added that migrants had made Britain 'stronger’ and said those calling for greater curbs on foreigners entering the country were wrong.
His comments come just days after official figures revealed that the population is expected to soar by the equivalent of a city the size of Leeds every year for the next decade.
A defiant Mr Blair insisted his party’s policy on immigration was the right one. He said: 'It’s been a very positive thing and there is no way for a country like Britain to succeed in the future unless it is open to people of different colours, faiths and cultures.’
Under Labour, up to 5.5million people born outside the UK arrived as long-term migrants.
Between 1997 and 2010, around 2.3million left the country, meaning the UK population increased by around 3.2million as a direct result of foreign migrants.
In an interview with Eastern Eye newspaper, Mr Blair said: 'The vision of a country of different cultures and different faiths mixing together is the right one.
'That is not to say you don’t have problems at certain points, but those problems are to be overcome without losing the essence of what has actually allowed this country’s people to get on and do well.’
Defiant: Mr Blair's comments about mass migration were branded shameless by critics
His comments were branded ‘shameless’ by critics and are set to fuel claims that the huge increase in migrants under Labour were due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to change the country.
Two years ago, Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, said that Labour’ s relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to ‘open the UK to mass migration’.
He added that Labour wanted to rub the ‘Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date’.
Deliberate: Two years ago, Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, said that Labour' s relaxation of controls wanted to 'open the UK to mass migration'
Mr Blair added that the anti-immigration debate was one of the ‘past’. ‘I think the majority of people in Britain today are not prejudiced and can understand the benefits of migration.
‘I think what people worry about is where they feel there is no control over who comes in and there are no rules governing who comes in or not, and that is a different issue altogether.
‘It would be very unfortunate if by putting those rules into place, we view that immigration was a somehow bad thing for the country, because it is not.’
Tory MP Priti Patel, said: ‘As the daughter of immigrants, there is no question that those who work hard and make a positive contribution do enrich the fabric of our society.
‘But what Tony Blair has failed to recognise is that while he was in power, he opened the floodgates of mass and uncontrolled immigration which has left a damaging legacy in our towns and cities.’
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: ‘This is completely shameless from the Prime Minister who brought more than three million immigrants into Britain in the teeth of public opposition.’
Fellow Tory MP Dominic Raab added: ‘These comments are naïve if not reckless. Tony Blair has left Britain with a legacy of uncontrolled immigration that has put huge pressure on public services and undermined community cohesion’.
Telegraph
Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser
The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity", according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett.
He said Labour's relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to "open up the UK to mass migration" but that ministers were nervous and reluctant to discuss such a move publicly for fear it would alienate its "core working class vote".
As a result, the public argument for immigration concentrated instead on the economic benefits and need for more migrants.
Critics said the revelations showed a "conspiracy" within Government to impose mass immigration for "cynical" political reasons.
Mr Neather was a speech writer who worked in Downing Street for Tony Blair and in the Home Office for Jack Straw and David Blunkett, in the early 2000s.
Writing in the Evening Standard, he revealed the "major shift" in immigration policy came after the publication of a policy paper from the Performance and Innovation Unit, a Downing Street think tank based in the Cabinet Office, in 2001.
He wrote a major speech for Barbara Roche, the then immigration minister, in 2000, which was largely based on drafts of the report.
He said the final published version of the report promoted the labour market case for immigration but unpublished versions contained additional reasons, he said.
He wrote: "Earlier drafts I saw also included a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural.
"I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended – even if this wasn't its main purpose – to rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date."
The "deliberate policy", from late 2000 until "at least February last year", when the new points based system was introduced, was to open up the UK to mass migration, he said.
Some 2.3 million migrants have been added to the population since then, according to Whitehall estimates quietly slipped out last month.
On Question Time on Thursday, Mr Straw was repeatedly quizzed about whether Labour's immigration policies had left the door open for the BNP.
In his column, Mr Neather said that as well as bringing in hundreds of thousands more migrants to plug labour market gaps, there was also a "driving political purpose" behind immigration policy.
He defended the policy, saying mass immigration has "enriched" Britain, and made London a more attractive and cosmopolitan place.
But he acknowledged that "nervous" ministers made no mention of the policy at the time for fear of alienating Labour voters.
"Part by accident, part by design, the Government had created its longed-for immigration boom.
"But ministers wouldn't talk about it. In part they probably realised the conservatism of their core voters: while ministers might have been passionately in favour of a more diverse society, it wasn't necessarily a debate they wanted to have in working men's clubs in Sheffield or Sunderland."
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the Migrationwatch think tank, said: "Now at least the truth is out, and it's dynamite.
"Many have long suspected that mass immigration under Labour was not just a cock up but also a conspiracy. They were right.
"This Government has admitted three million immigrants for cynical political reasons concealed by dodgy economic camouflage."
The chairmen of the cross-party Group for Balanced Migration, MPs Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, said: "We welcome this statement by an ex-adviser, which the whole country knows to be true.
"It is the first beam of truth that has officially been shone on the immigration issue in Britain."
A Home Office spokesman said: “Our new flexible points based system gives us greater control on those coming to work or study from outside Europe, ensuring that only those that Britain need can come.
“Britain's borders are stronger than ever before and we are rolling out ID cards to foreign nationals, we have introduced civil penalties for those employing illegal workers and from the end of next year our electronic border system will monitor 95 per cent of journeys in and out of the UK.
“The British people can be confident that immigration is under control.”
Telegraph
Almost eight million: that’s the Office for National Statistics' projection of how many additional people there will be living in the UK in 16 years time.
Should we be worried by the prospect of 70 million people living in Britain in 2027? Some of the increase will be down to increased longevity - and most of us want to live longer. It was noted in the 16th century that “the wings of life are plumed with the feathers of death”. Fewer feathers of death means more living people. No one wants, as a matter of policy, to increase the amount of death - least of all any member of the Government. So, in the absence of some catastrophe such as an epidemic of a fatal and untreatable disease, increased longevity is here to stay as a cause of increased population.
But most of the increase won’t be the result of more people living longer. It’ll be the consequence of immigration. Net migration into Britain –the number of people arriving to settle here minus the number who leave permanently to set up home in a foreign country – is running at around 200,000 a year, which means we’re adding a million to the population every five years, even before the new arrivals have any children.
Ministers have promised to cut net migration by at least half, to around 100,000 a year. I doubt they will be able to keep that promise. You might think that it would not be difficult to achieve such a reduction. After all, the previous Government’s policies increased immigration. Why shouldn’t the present Government’s policies be able to diminish it?
The trouble is, it is much easier to turn the tap on (as it were) than it is to turn it off. Migrants come here because they believe they will have a much better life in Britain than they can achieve in their own countries. And very often, that is true: even when we’re in the midst of a very serious economic contraction, the gap between the standard of living here and what’s achievable in most African or Asian countries is so vast that it is worth tens of thousands of migrants every year making the expensive, and often very hazardous, journey to get here. It will continue to be so until that gap is very significantly reduced, either by a collapse in living standards here or an enormous increase in prosperity in the countries from which the migrants come – neither of which seems likely to happen in the next 16 years.
Over the past decade, since Labour implemented policies to encourage immigration, word has got out that it is not difficult to get into Britain, and that it is well worth it once you do. It will be difficult for the present Government, or its successors, to reverse that perception. Increased border security may help, but since no one knows how many “illegals” slip through the existing system, it is hard to know how much difference it will make. We can, however, be sure that if the Government succeeds in making it more difficult for people to settle here legally, the principal effect will be to increase the number who try the illegal route.
Most of the migrants settle in the South East, because that’s where the jobs are. The empty parts of the UK – Northern Scotland, say, or the mountains of Wales – are that way because there’s far less that's economically viable for people to do. The scary part of population growth is that it will be squashed into the parts of Britain that already amongst the most densely populated in Europe.
Worse, there is no plan from the Government on how to build the infrastructure that will be needed. To take just one example: more than a million new school places will be needed for the children of immigrants in the next decade. The cost is likely to be in the region of £100billion. Where will the money come from? Where will the space for the new school buildings, and the tens of thousands new houses that will also be needed, come from? Or the extra roads? The cars, the buses, trains, plumbing, cables?
Life doesn’t have to be worse when there are seven million more people in the South East. But it is not easy to see how it can be better - especially when no one has any idea of how to stop it amounting to one colossal traffic jam.
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