Labour threw door open for mass migration, report says

London: Labour allowed mass migration as part of a deliberate policy to change the social make-up of the UK, secret papers suggest.

A draft report from the Cabinet Office shows that ministers wanted to "maximise the contribution" of migrants to their "social objectives".

The number of foreigners allowed in the UK increased by as much as 50 per cent in the wake of the report, written in 2000. Labour has always justified immigration on economic grounds and denied it was using it to foster multiculturalism.

Strategy

But suspicions of a secret agenda rose when Andrew Neather, a former government adviser and speech writer for Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett, said the aim of Labour's immigration strategy was to "rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date".

Neather said he helped write the 2000 report which outlined a strategy to "open up the UK to mass migration".

The controversial document was not published in its original format over fears of an adverse public reaction.

Instead, it was released a year later as a research document on the economic benefits of migration.

Neather's claims last October were denied by ministers.