Local jobs for local people

Immigration minister Phil Woolas last night told a powerful Commons committee he wanted his Milnrow and Newhey constituents to get the first pick when it came to local jobs.

Giving evidence before the Home affairs Select Committee into migration, the Oldham East and Saddleworth MP was asked whether Government regretted using the phrase “British jobs for British workers".

Mr Woolas said: “I stand by it and I am happy to say as a British minister in British Government with British constituents, that I want my constituents to have the first bite of the cherry in the market.

“That seems to be uncontroversial it is what local authorities do in their regeneration departments, what devolved governments do, what happens in the regional development agencies.”

The Labour MP also told the committee that Britain was trying to reach an agreement with France over plans for a new detention centre in Calais for people trying to get into the country illegally.

Illegal immigrants could be held in the centre after passing through British immigration controls in France and then sent back to their home countries on planned new charter flights arranged by the Home Office.

He said: “We want to increase the profile of the deportations because we have to get the message back to Afghanistan and Iraq that Britain is not the Promised Land.”

He added: “We are in a 24-hour a day war with the traffickers.”

Plans for the centre and the new flights are part of a package of measures intended to tackle illegal migrants trying to cross the Channel.

Mr Woolas stressed the centre would not be like the controversial Red Cross camp at Sangatte, which gave hundreds of immigrants temporary shelter, food and drink as they attempted to get into Britain illegally.

Mr Woolas also said he expected the points-based system for migrants to lead to a fall in the number of workers coming to Britain. And he dismissed London Mayor Boris Johnson’s call for an amnesty for illegal immigrants.