Labour pre-election cover up on immigration

Ministers accused John Denham, the former communities secretary, of trying "to bury the truth" about immigration to try to guarantee his party's survival in office.

The 80-page report, The Drivers of International Migration To and From the UK, written by the highly respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research, was presented to ministers six weeks before the start of the general election campaign.


It found that net immigration to the UK rose by 169,100 people a year between 1992-1995 and 2004-2007, with the vast majority of new entrants coming from Asian countries.

Just over half the increase (51.2 per cent) was accounted for by "UK immigration policy relative to other hosts" while 26.7 per cent arose from the "relaxation of UK immigration policy from 1997".

If published, the report's findings would have reignited the row over the so-called "open door" immigration policy pursued by Labour up until it began phasing in its replacement "points based" system in 2008.

Yet the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) decided not to publish the document.

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