Brown remark on immigration risks angry backlash

London: Gordon Brown risked an angry backlash over immigration on Sunday by telling voters to get the problem in "perspective".

The Prime Minister suggested that fears about the numbers coming into the country were unfounded as he repeated his controversial claims that net inward migration is falling.

Brown has rejected Tory plans for a cap on immigration, insisting that a "tough" points-based system for admitting skilled migrants is a better way of controlling the numbers.

Asked whether 160,000 coming in every year was acceptable, he said: "Let's get this in perspective; there are a million people who've come from the European Union at various stages to work in Britain, but there's also a million Britons have gone to work in the European Union. And we've got to accept that there's bound to be more people wanting to study abroad or work abroad or work here for some time or study here for some time, and we've just got to get that into its proper perspective."

Brown went on to insist that figures for 2009 would show the number coming into Britain is a "lot lower".

The Prime Minister has already been rebuked by the statistics watchdog for using erroneous figures to back up his claims.

But he told BBC1's Andrew Marr: "It's going to be lower. It's already lower this year. The points system is starting to have a big effect."

Open-door policy

The number entering Britain per year has tripled under Labour and reached an all-time high in 2004 when Eastern European countries joined the EU.

According to official figures, net migration — the difference between those entering and leaving Britain — soared to an alltime high of 244,000 that year.

Immigration has become one of the biggest battlegrounds of the General Election with the Tories promising to put a cap on numbers.

It recently emerged that 98.5 per cent of the 1.67million jobs created in the past 13 years have been taken by foreign-born workers.

Labour has faced accusations that it has forgotten about British-born working classes in some of its heartlands at a time when migrants have mopped up the greatest share of jobs.

Brown admitted that Labour's previous open- door policy was a mistake, but insisted that the system had been toughened. "We've had to learn lessons," he acknowledged.

"And the one lesson I learnt was that the points system was the best way."

His comments represent a shift in rhetoric from the days where he promised "British jobs for British workers" at the start of his premiership.