MIGRANTS: A CYNICAL COVER-UP

Whitehall won’t reveal number of EU workers in UK as it’s ‘unhelpful’ to Cameron’s Brussels negotiations

THE true scale of mass migration has been covered up to try to keep Britain in Europe, it was claimed last night.

Officials have given out 1.9million national insurance numbers to EU citizens in four years – while logging only 751,000 arrivals. The huge gap between the two figures means many more migrants might be living here than thought. HMRC staff know how many of the NI numbers are active but are withholding the data because it would be ‘ unhelpful’ to David Cameron’s EU renegotiation talks.

The Prime Minister had to retreat yesterday over his proposal to deny migrants in-work benefits for their first four years in the UK. At a summit

in Brussels, Eastern European leaders said the idea was unacceptable and discriminatory.

Steve Baker, of the Eurosceptic Conservatives for Britain group, said it seemed officials were trying to hide the truth at a critical time.

‘It’s vitally important the public are properly informed about a situation our country faces as we go into the referendum,’ he said. ‘We cannot control EU migration without leaving the EU.’

The national insurance number mismatch has been highlighted by Jonathan Portes, a former chief economist at the Cabinet Office.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, he asked HMRC to release data on active NI numbers – which would show how many migrants live here. ‘Astonishingly, HMRC have refused to give me this data,’ he said on his blog.

‘Not because they don’t have it, not even because it would be too much work.

‘My current expectation is that it would reveal there are actually considerably more such recent migrants than the official immigration or labour market statistics actually suggest. I’m quite willing to be proved wrong.

‘But I do know that when the Government has in its possession information on a topic of considerable public interest – the resident migrant population in the UK – and refuses to release it, it feeds paranoia and mistrust in official statistics.’

In its response to his FoI request, the Government said: ‘The information is being used to inform the development of policy options as part of the negotiation process and therefore relates to the formulation of Government policy. HMRC continues to believe that releasing information in the form requested would, at this stage, be unhelpful to the negotiation process.’

Research by the Mail shows the Department for Work and Pensions has given out 1,867,1 6 NI numbers to EU nationals over the past four

‘Feeds paranoia and mistrust’

years. The Office for National Statistics – using the International Passenger Survey – has recorded 7 1,000 arrivals from the EU in the same period.

Mr Portes, who is considered one of the architects of Labour’s migration policy, said the divergence between the figures had grown considerably in the past few years.

Stephen Parkinson of Vote Leave said: ‘While the UK is a member of the European Union, the simple truth is we cannot control migration from the EU.

‘As his own independent experts have said, the Prime Minister’s trivial demands will not make any difference to the number of people coming here. The only way to take back control of our borders is to vote leave.’

Last night, an HMRC spokesman said it was wrong to suggest information was withheld because of the EU renegotiation.

‘Not all the information that has been requested is held by HMRC,’ he added. ‘The information that is held is not in a collated, publishable form. HMRC will release that data when it is properly collated early in the new year.’ Last year, it emerged that 3 0,000 people arrived unnoticed from Eastern Europe during the last parliament because of glaring gaps in the survey relied on by the ONS.

Those counting migrants into the country went only to Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester. But hundreds of thousands arrived through other airports such as Luton and Stansted. Ferry routes were barely or never checked and tens of thousands of children were missed entirely.

The errors were detected following the 2011 census, which showed the population was bigger than estimated.

Last night Mr Cameron still tabled his migration demand at a dinner of EU leaders – in the knowledge it would be thrown back in his face. Aides said he was open to alternative proposals to curb migration.

Ministers are considering plans to further curb the FoI Act used by Mr Portes, triggering protests from campaigners for transparency and open government.