Ed faces chaos over immigration limits

ED Miliband will today claim Labour’s attitude to immigration has ‘changed’ – despite still refusing to put any upper limit on the numbers allowed in.

In an audacious move, the Labour leader will insist that he offers a ‘clear, credible and concrete plan on immigration – not false promises’. He will say: ‘We will deal with people’s concerns because we have listened, we have learned and we have changed.’

But, only hours before the key election speech was due to be delivered, his own shadow home secretary refused at least four times to say Labour would put a target on net immigration.

Under intense pressure during a home affairs debate on the BBC’s Daily Politics Show, Yvette Cooper would say only she wanted the number to be lower than the current 300,000.

Presenter Andrew Neil had pointed out that, in office, Labour had ‘virtually opened the door’ to record migration. During Labour’s 13 years in power, the foreign-born population rocketed by 3.6million.

Speaking in the Vale of Glamorgan today, Mr Miliband will claim that Labour would implement a ten-point plan for curbing immigration during its first 100 days in office. It includes recruiting an additional 1,000 border staff, banning recruitment agencies from hiring only from overseas and making it illegal for employers to undercut wages by exploiting workers.

However, the Tories are likely to point out that a number of the proposals are already in the process of being implemented.

They include the introduction of full exit checks to count people in and out of the country and ‘stopping those who have committed serious crimes coming to Britain’.

Mr Miliband is expected to say: ‘David Cameron once promised to cut net immigration to tens of thousands – and told us to kick him out of office if he didn’t deliver.

‘But net migration rose to 298,000 last year, almost exactly three times higher than he promised. Nothing damages people’s faith in politics more than broken promises like that – or those he is still making today.

‘I will only make promises I can keep. I won’t offer false targets or seek to exploit concerns with the politics of fear. Instead, I am offering clear, credible and concrete ways of making a real difference.’