IT is time for Britain to take back control of immigration.
I joined the UK Immigration Department just as the Immigration Act of 1971 came into force and, for a couple of decades, net migration was not an issue.
GettyWe must take back control of immigration NOW – or we won’t have the homes, hospitals, surgeries and schools to cope[/caption]
We had full control over who we allowed to come and stay here — with the number of people settling here roughly the same as the number leaving.
Now we learn that the population of Britain will reach 72.5million in seven years’ time. That’s an increase of 4.9million people by 2032 — and almost entirely due to immigration.
For me that figure is far too high.
We won’t be able to build the homes, hospitals, GP surgeries and schools — or find the staff — to cope with these numbers.
We need to act now.
Voters up and down the land, particularly those who will pay higher rents due to a shortage of housing, are rightly asking: how do we get the numbers down?
You won’t find the answer by gazing across the English Channel at the small boats crossing over from France.
Like King Canute
Less than ten per cent of that rise was due to asylum seekers.
While we do need to massively reduce the number of small boats to stop human smuggling and save lives, we also need to focus on how the other 90 per cent are joining our great nation, and why.
In Whitehall there are constant arguments between different departments with differing perspectives. It’s been going on for decades.
From the mid-1990s I saw how attitudes within government changed, as more and more groups lobbied for an increase in workers and students brought in from overseas.
Then, in the Noughties, they allowed free movement of workers from EU accession countries such as Poland, Bulgaria and Romania — to the point where net migration reached over 300,000 and led to the demands for Brexit.
Leaving the EU was supposed to halt free movement and bring the numbers down — but it didn’t. Instead, they rose to an incredible high of 906,000 in 2023.
The Home Office is often like King Canute trying to hold back the tide of immigration.
But any Home Secretary always finds themself up against the Treasury (which believes more migration boosts the economy), the health sector (which says we need more staff for the NHS), the agricultural sector (which calls for more migrants to pick the fruit), the construction and catering sectors (who say they can’t recruit enough local staff) and the education sector (which relies on higher fees paid by overseas students).
That powerful alliance has so far always won the day, regardless of the colour of government.
But now some economists are saying that immigration is not boosting our economy at all.
In fact, 25 years of high net migration has not improved productivity, GDP per capita, skill shortages or workforce modelling — let alone improved our housing, healthcare and infrastructure.
PAYou won’t find the answer to lowering immigraton by gazing across the English Channel at the small boats crossing over from France[/caption]
Many newcomers aren’t really adding more wealth to the nation than they take out. I was told of a case recently where three Nigerian females arrived here with care worker visas, accompanied by three unskilled husbands and 15 kids with “dependent” visas.
It’s hard to see how that will boost our economy. Yet those who lobby for more immigration cast the sceptics as economic illiterates, or worse.
The last government did introduce some changes in visa policy to reduce net migration to 728,000 by June 2024, but the number still remains unaccept- ably high.
So far, the new Labour Government has done a good job in deporting more people with no right to be here.
But little has been done to restrict the number of visas being handed out.
Reducing visas is the only way to stop the population ballooning to 72.5million.
Do we really need so many overseas workers and students?
According to research, around 36 per cent of UK graduates are considered overqualified for their jobs.
Taking easy option
A recent survey indicated that nearly half of human resources departments won’t consider an applicant aged 57 or over. And nine million people aged 16-64 in the UK are not in work.
That’s a lot of people in Britain who employers could go to first, before taking the easy option of bringing in workers from abroad.
I am not advocating zero immigration. There are examples of visa policies that clearly demonstrate an economic benefit, in highly skilled professions.
There are many examples of foreign-born entrepreneurs who have gone on to make a significant contribution to the UK economy.
The fertility rate in England and Wales fell to a record low, an average of 1.44 children per woman of childbearing age, last year. So there is some room for immigration. But not at this rate.
Politicians cannot decide how many children women should have — but they can decide how many people should receive visas.
It is within the power of Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour government to get that figure down.
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