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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Foreign workers rise by 300,000 | Foreign workers rise by 300,000 |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The government has revised its figures for the number of foreign nationals working in the UK since 1997 - from 800,000 to 1.1 million. | The government has revised its figures for the number of foreign nationals working in the UK since 1997 - from 800,000 to 1.1 million. |
| The extra 300,000, found after analysis of the Labour Force Survey, shows 8% of the UK's 29.1m workforce are foreign. | The extra 300,000, found after analysis of the Labour Force Survey, shows 8% of the UK's 29.1m workforce are foreign. |
| Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said he does not have accurate statistics on where the people are from. | Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said he does not have accurate statistics on where the people are from. |
| Tory leader David Cameron said the current level of immigration to the UK should be "substantially lower". | Tory leader David Cameron said the current level of immigration to the UK should be "substantially lower". |
| The new government figures for foreign national workers relate to new jobs that have been created over the last 10 years. | |
| Immigration 'shake up' | |
| The Department for Work and Pensions stressed that ministers had used the earlier 800,000 estimate "in good faith". | |
| "Following detailed analysis of the information contained within the Labour Force Survey, the figure has been revised to 1.1 million," a spokesman said. | |
| I just don't accept that actually having a proper understanding of population, demography, household formation or poverty is somehow a left wing issue or a right wing issue David Cameron Analysis: The big issues Population 'to hit 65m' In full: Cameron speech | |
| He said just under half the 1.1m were EU nationals, while the remainder came from other non-EU and Commonwealth countries, including the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. | |
| However, Mr Byrne said: "We don't have accurate statistics on where people have come from." | |
| He said removing exit controls at UK borders had been "a mistake". | |
| However, he said the government was introducing the "biggest shake-up" of immigration in its history. | |
| This included: the introduction of a new Australian-style points-based system of immigration to ensure only those who benefit Britain can settle here, ID cards for foreign nationals and electronic checks on everyone entering and leaving the UK by 2014. | |
| Currently 200,000 more people move to live in the UK than leave each year. | Currently 200,000 more people move to live in the UK than leave each year. |
| Pressures | |
| Mr Cameron told the BBC that figure should be cut by imposing annual limits on the numbers of people moving to work in the UK from outside the EU. | |
| And people from new EU countries should be subject to controls on access to the labour market - as the government has done for Romania and Bulgaria. | |
| He declined to give a precise figure but said action was needed because of the recent increase in immigration and the pressure on services and society. | |
| He denied a move to right-wing issues, saying it had to be considered "in the round" in calm language. | He denied a move to right-wing issues, saying it had to be considered "in the round" in calm language. |
| Last week the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated the UK population would rise by 4.4 million, to 65 million, by 2016 and to 71 million by 2031. | |
| Border police | |
| Mr Cameron said immigration had to be considered alongside other pressures including people living longer and more people choosing to live alone. | |
| Unsustainable demographic change makes it harder to build the opportunity society I want to see David Cameron | |
| "Our current level of population growth and atomisation is unsustainable," he said. | |
| "Immigration is too high. Family breakdown is too high. Unsustainable demographic change makes it harder to build the opportunity society I want to see." | |
| Mr Cameron said he would set up a border police force to track down and remove illegal migrants and to raise the minimum age for spouses coming to Britain to 21 as well as ensuring they could speak English. | |
| But Mr Byrne said Mr Cameron's plans were a "smokescreen" as 80% of immigrants to Britain last year were from the European Economic Area. | |
| "If David Cameron wants to have a serious conversation about these issues, he should start by offering some detailed policy proposals and not merely rehash platitudes that we have heard from him before," he said. | |
| "He talks of a limit on immigration numbers but nowhere does he say what this would be." | |
| Human rights abuses | |
| Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said it was "fantasy politics" and said Mr Cameron was "pandering to the right wing in his own party and claims that immigration numbers should be cut without having the faintest clue as to how that would happen". | |
| UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said British Conservatives in the European Parliament had been "the greatest enthusiasts of open borders to Eastern Europe, which is where the huge rise in immigration has come from". | |
| Habib Rahman, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: "If the Conservatives are really serious about stemming non-EU migration, David Cameron should have committed the party to specific objectives on reducing global social injustice and human rights abuses." |