Tory immigration policy 'helps far-right'
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 12:00 AM
The Conservatives' immigration policy helps fuel extremism, Alan Johnson has suggested.
The home secretary's claim came in a speech in central London this morning as he announced stricter entry criteria for foreign students from outside Europe.
"Immigration is an issue that far-right groups are keen to exploit, and many more are determined to misrepresent," he said.
"That's why we need more discussion and more opportunities for challenge; a
wider debate."
He later added: "Mainstream politicians have a duty to ensure that it's not the extremists that dictate the terms of this debate.
"We can only do this by being honest with the public. Presenting a cap an immigration quota as the panacea to concerns about population growth is at best misleading - at worst mendacious."
He pointed out the points system affects half of all migrants, compared to the one in seven who would be affected by Tory plans for their "arbitrary, pre-planned annual quota".
Mr Johnson said the government had already taken steps to limit immigration, meaning the Tories could only stop skilled and highly skilled migrants from outside the EU from coming to Britain.
He said it was "disingenuous" of the Conservatives to argue that a fixed quota on immigration represented a population policy because "until recently" the main driver of population growth has been net migration.
The home secretary was in frustrated mood as he attacked the media as well as the opposition for masking the government's achievements on immigration.
"They are hardly mentioned in a media dominated by references to a mythical open door immigration policy," he complained. "And we've seen more of that hyperventilating nonsense today."
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