Immigration: we’re in control

Milnrow and Newhey MP and immigration minister Phil Woolas today admitted voters do not believe the Government has “got control” of immigration.

A Financial Times/Harris poll found that more than three-quarters (78%) of British adults think immigrants who are unemployed should be asked to leave the country.

And more than half (54%) opposed the right of EU citizens to work in Britain.

Mr Woolas said: “The figures are not a surprise, they are a concern, and they are because the public doesn’t believe the Government has got control.”

The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP added: “It is a statement of the obvious — it was not under control and now we are getting it under control.”

Mr Woolas insisted Britain was “not a soft touch” and said hundreds of refugees risking their lives in Calais to get into Britain are “locked out, not queuing to get in”.

The UK's borders were tougher than that between the United States and Mexico, he added.

Mr Woolas said the Government was compiling a database of travel records, which will help track millions of people, but he admitted that "some inevitably do get through".

Mr Woolas was this morning due to appear before the Commons powerful Home Affairs Select Committee looking at migration.