Labour ‘conspired to organise mass migration to UK’
political motive behind policy, claims former Downing Street adviser
Published:
The huge increases in immigration over the past decade were in part a politically-motivated attempt by ministers to socially engineer a more multicultural Britain, a former government adviser said yesterday.
Andrew Neather, a speechwriter who worked in Downing Street for Tony Blair and in the Home Office for Jack Straw and David Blunkett, said Labour’s relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to “open up the UK to mass migration”.
As well as bringing in hundreds of thousands more migrants to plug labour market gaps, there was also a “driving political purpose” behind immigration policy, he revealed. Ministers hoped to radically change the country and by doing so “rub the Right’s nose in diversity”.
But Mr Neather said senior Labour figures were reluctant to discuss the policy, fearing it would alienate its “core working-class vote”.
Critics said the revelations showed a “conspiracy” within government to impose mass immigration for “cynical” political reasons.
On Question Time on Thursday night, Mr Straw was repeatedly quizzed about whether Labour’s immigration policies had left the door open for the BNP.
Writing in a London newspaper, Mr Neather revealed the “major shift” in immigration policy came after the publication of a policy paper from the Performance and Innovation Unit, a Downing Street think tank based in the Cabinet Office. The published version promoted the labour market case for immigration but Mr Neather said unpublished versions contained additional reasons. He wrote: “Earlier drafts I saw also included a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the government was going to make the UK truly multicultural.
“I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended — even if this wasn’t its main purpose — to rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.”
The “deliberate policy”, from late 2000 until “at least February last year”, when the new points based system was introduced, was to open up the UK to mass migration, he said.
Mr Neather defended the policy, saying mass immigration has “enriched” Britain, and made London a more attractive and cosmopolitan place. But he acknowledged that “nervous” ministers made no mention of the policy for fear of alienating Labour voters.
“Part by accident, part by design, the government had created its longed-for immigration boom. But ministers wouldn’t talk about it. In part they probably realised the conservatism of their core voters: while ministers might have been passionately in favour of a more diverse society, it wasn’t necessarily a debate they wanted to have in working men’s clubs in Sheffield or Sunderland.”
Sir Andrew Green, of the Migrationwatch think tank, said: “Now at least the truth is out, and it’s dynamite. Many have long suspected that mass immigration under Labour was not just a cock-up but also a conspiracy. They were right.
“This government has admitted 3million immigrants for cynical political reasons concealed by dodgy economic camouflage.”
The chairmen of the cross-party Group for Balanced Migration, MPs Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, said: “We welcome this statement by an ex-adviser, which the whole country knows to be true. It is the first beam of truth that has officially been shone on the immigration issue in Britain.”
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “If this is true it is deeply shocking that the government can have taken such significant decisions without public debate and public consultation. The essence of good decision-making in a democracy seems to have been ignored. Legal migration has undoubtedly brought great benefits to this country, but the shambolic control of our borders over the last 10 years has left a legacy of illegal migration which creates social tensions.”
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