Migrants: Dave v Red Ed

WITH only David Cameron or Ed Miliband in a position to be Prime Minister after the election, voters face a stark choice on immigration policy. Her Here, JAMES SLACK examines the key differences between the party man manifestos.

NETNE MIGRATION

TORIES:TOR Re-state commitment to cut net migration to the ‘tens of thousand sands’ from current level of 300,000. Mak Make it harder for non-EU citizens to getg marriage visas to enter the UK. Cap number of non –EU work visa visas at 20,700.

LABOUR:LAB No upper limit on net mig migration. Last Labour governmen ment presided over a deliberate open door policy which saw the foreign-born population rocket by 3.6million. Ed Miliband has said sorry for the calamitous underestimate of the number of Eastern Europeans who arrived – but, crucially, he refuses to accept unprecedented levels of non-EU migration were a mistake.

MIGRANTS FROM EU

TORIES: No in-work benefits for four years. Benefits for jobseekers stopped. Residency requirement for social housing. Citizens of poor countries which join the EU denied free movement.

LABOUR: Prevent migrants from claiming handouts for two years. Support open borders with the EU. Would block in/out referendum or attempt to curb free movement.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

TORIES: New system of ‘deport first, appeal later’ to dramatically increase number of removals. Fit electronic tags on foreign criminals so they can be monitored by satellite pending deportation. Scrap Human Rights Act.

LABOUR: Ideologically-wedded to HRA. Vague promise to ‘ deport those who commit crimes while they are here’. Last Labour government released 1,000 overseas convicts without even considering them for deportation.

FOREIGN STUDENTS

TORIES: Clamp down on satellite campuses opened in London by universities based elsewhere in UK. Since 2010 party has closed 8 0 of the bogus colleges which proliferated under Labour.

LABOUR: No mention of bogus colleges. Under last Labour government, wholesale abuse saw number of student visas issued more than triple. The National Audit Office found that in the 2009 as many as 50,000 bogus students may have entered the UK to work rather than study.