Vince Cable scorns David Cameron's migration target

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/07/vince-cable-rejects-david-camerons-migration-targets

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David Cameron's pledge to cut net migration to the "tens of thousands" by the next election is impractical and almost certain to be broken, Vince Cable has said.

The Liberal Democrat business secretary in the coalition government said the Tory target was "not sensible" because it was not possible to control EU migration or Britons leaving or returning to the UK.

The senior Lib Dem, who has a history of speaking out against his coalition colleagues on immigration, said his party had never signed up to the "arbitrary" measure.

In an interview with BBC political editor Nick Robinson for his documentary The Truth About Immigration, Cable said: "In our view, certainly the Liberal Democrats' view, it's not sensible to have an arbitrary cap because most of the things under it can't be controlled.

"So it involves British people emigrating – you can't control that. It involves free movement within the European Union – in and out. It involves British people coming back from overseas, who are not immigrants but who are counted in the numbers.

"So setting an arbitrary cap is not helpful, it almost certainly won't achieve the below 100,000 level the Conservatives have set anyway, so let's be practical about it."

Asked if the target was "a bit of a nonsense", Cable said: "I wouldn't use the word nonsense, but the idea it should come down to 100,000 is something the Liberal Democrats have never signed up to because we simply regard it as impractical."

The prime minister has admitted the crisis in the eurozone disrupted his plans to get immigration figures below 100,000 in time for the 2015 general election.

Cameron's election time pledge to limit net migration to the tens of thousands was dealt a severe blow with the release of official statistics showing numbers rose to 182,000 in the year to June, from 167,000 the previous year.

Statisticians blamed a "significant" surge in citizens arriving for work from crisis-hit EU countries such as Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.

The intervention has come to light as a survey of social attitudes reveals more than three-quarters of British people want to see a cut in immigration. However, fewer people now than in 2011 think immigration is bad for the economy – 47% in 2013 compared with 52% two years previously, new findings from NatCen Social Research's British Social Attitudes survey found.

The latest results come nearly a week after access restrictions to the UK labour market were lifted for Romanians and Bulgarians. Penny Young, chief executive at NatCen Social Research, said: "The public broadly agrees that immigration is too high, but there are stark social divisions over the economic and cultural benefits of immigration."

The research shows 54% of respondents see immigration as good for the economy and 55% of those who see it is as culturally beneficial also want to see immigration reduced.

Some 40% of Labour party supporters think immigration is bad for the economy but 36% believe it is good for the economy, the research shows, while 40% think immigration is bad for British culture and 41% see it as good for British culture. Meanwhile, some 52% of Conservatives believe Britain's cultural life is undermined by immigration into the UK compared with 20% of Liberal Democrats.

Immigration was least popular among people with few or no qualifications, NatCen said. A total of 85% of those with few or no qualifications wanted to see a decrease, while 88% of people in higher grade manual jobs wanted a reduction.

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