Letter to the Editor - 18.07.12

Dear Sir

The recent release of census data shows how clearly the last Labour Government failed on immigration. They let immigration get out of control. They presided over total net migration of more than 2.2 million people, the foreign national prisoners scandal, widespread abuse of student visas, the botched e-Borders contract, a 450,000 asylum backlog, no transitional controls for Eastern Europeans and a points-based system that failed to reduce immigration.

There has been speculation that allowing mass immigration was a deliberate Labour policy; the census data lends weight to that argument, as does the 120,000 increase in the population of Kent.

I don’t agree with everything the Coalition Government does; but at least it is starting to get to grips with the problem of unchecked immigration. The Home Office is restoring order to our immigration system, with the aim of bringing net migration down to the tens of thousands – rather than the hundreds of thousands we saw under Labour – by the end of this parliament.

They have capped economic migration, reformed the student visa system, and they are changing the family visa rules. As a result we have already seen an eight per cent fall in work visas and a 21 per cent fall in student visas since last year.

There is a long way to go, but the Coalition is at last making some progress.

Yours

Gordon

GORDON HENDERSON MP