Stephen Pollard
the very fact that I have mentioned any of this marks me – and, if you also think that immigration needs to be controlled, you – as racist. Speaking this week Ms Abbott said that those of us who think that immigration is an issue that needs to be addressed are behaving in the same way the Germans did towards the Jews in the 1930s. As she put it: “Historically, such as in the period of the Weimar Republic in Germany between the wars, economic collapse has always led to scapegoating the other.”
Let’s ignore the idiocy of her describing this as a period of economic collapse (although that certainly lies in store should Ms Abbott and her hard-Left allies ever get into power). Let’s simply consider the outrageous slur and contempt in which she clearly holds many of her own Labour voters, who voted en masse for Brexit, driven in large measure by the feeling that the political establishment was ignoring their concerns.
Because even if you put to one side the sheer scale of immigration and the burden that the annual influx of the equivalent of vast new cities puts on housing, schools and hospitals, the immediate concern is surely the scale of illegal immigration.
Immigration minister Caroline Noakes was right to say this week we need a system “that attracts and retains people who come to work and bring significant benefits to the UK but does not offer an open door to those who don’t”. But the big issue is getting from here to there.
We do not yet have a clue what immigration policy the Government intends to implement after we leave the EU. And as for illegal immigration: the situation is getting worse, not better. I’ve been using the figure of 40,000 for annual illegal immigration but that’s simply a commonly accepted estimate.
The Home Office has its own estimate but won’t even admit it has such a figure, let alone publish it. Last summer David Wood, the former director general of immigration enforcement, revealed that the Home Office estimate (based on a raft of sensible measures) shows 150,000 illegal immigrants arriving every year. The year before, Rob Whiteman, the former head of the UK Border Agency, said that there could be one million illegal immigrants here. HE sheer scale demands action but instead the authorities are doing next to nothing. According to Mr Wood, the chance of a migrant being detained and deported for overstaying their visa is just one in 1,000.
In other words it is up to individual migrants to decide whether to abide by the terms of any visa they might have. This is crazy.
Everything about our immigration debate is fantasy. The figures are a fantasy. It was a fantasy when Tony Blair said that opening up our borders in 2004 to new EU members would not mean more than 13,000 extra immigrants a year. More than a million have arrived, even on the official figures.
The idea we are now in control of our non-EU borders is a fantasy. And the idea that we will regain control of our EU borders when we leave is a fantasy.
What we need is honesty about the true figures of both legal and illegal immigrants. And action to ensure that border control means precisely what it says.
‘Situation is getting worse not better’