Immigration ‘cover-up’ denied
Immigration minister Phil Woolas has denied the Labour government attempted to deliberately cover-up a mass immigration policy.
A ten-year-old report prepared for the Cabinet Office and Home Office by civil servants, finally released under freedom of information rules, reveals ministers were encouraged to ignore public concerns about immigration and allow the wave of immigration to Britain seen in the noughties.
“I think there’s now more and more evidence emerging to suggest deliberate increasing immigration and tried to cover it up,” shadow home secretary Chris Grayling commented.
The report also revealed most people’s concerns about immigration were based in prejudice rather than practical worries.
“They concealed their real intentions in the hope they would benefit from the immigrant vote without losing their working-class supporters,” Migrationwatch UK’s chairman Sir Andrew Green said. “They are now paying the price.”
Mr Woolas said sections of the report which had been blacked out had only been redacted because of “sloppy” English.
“This is pure smear politics. It is not true there was a deliberate policy to have a mass migration policy,” he said.
“It’s a complete fabrication, a falsehood, a nonsense, it’s an old story, it’s based on a report that was ten years ago that wasn’t accepted by ministers at the time. There’s clearly an election on.”
