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Tories cry hoarse seeking tougher immigration law
The Tories yon Sunday issued a new call for tougher curbs on immigration as they warned that more than 80 per cent of migrants to Britain since 1997 came from outside the EU.
- Evening Standard
- Published: 00:55 October 21, 2008
London: The Tories yon Sunday issued a new call for tougher curbs on immigration as they warned that more than 80 per cent of migrants to Britain since 1997 came from outside the EU.
Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said official figures showed that 2.3 million people have moved here since Labour came to power. Of these, 1.96 million, or 84 per cent, came from outside Europe, where migration can be controlled, while only 374,000, or 16 per cent, had come from the EU.
Grieve said the figures showed that the Government had displayed a "failure to control economic migration from outside the EU" and called for a "fundamental change in approach" that would restrict the numbers arriving from outside Europe.
The Tory attack follows the comments by the new immigration minister Phil Woolas who caused controversy at the weekend by suggesting that he wanted to curb migration to prevent Britain's population spiralling to more than 70 million, as official projections have suggested it will.
Woolas, who was also responding to concerns about a lack of jobs for British workers, was accused of backtracking yesterday after appearing to water down his comments in favour of immigration curbs.
Writing in yesterday's Evening Standard, Grieve said the change of tack was leading to confusion about the Government's true stance and said the only answer was firm action, including an annual limit on economic migration from outside Europe.
Remembering arrivals
The arrival in Britain of millions of people, including the relatives of several famous names, is recorded in a database which goes live today.
Family histories in Ancestry.co.uk include those of footballer Theo Walcott, F1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton and Labour MP Diane Abbott. The UK Incoming Passenger Lists detail the arrival of over 18m people, many from what was once the British Empire.
Digitised in partnership with The National Archives, the list contains records of travellers who arrived in Britain before commercial flights became commonplace.
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