Gordon Brown admits ‘mistakes’ on immigration after BNP TV furore

Posted on November 12, 2009
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Gordon Brown will concede today that Labour has made mistakes on immigration as he defends the benefits of workers coming from overseas.

The Prime Minister is expected to echo remarks by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, who said last week that some parts of Britain are disproportionately affected by an influx of foreigners.

In his speech today Mr Brown will say that the door is being closed to non-EU hospital consultants, civil engineers, aircraft engineers and ship’s officers from outside the European Union. He will also say that UK the population will not, as predicted, reach 70 million in the next 20 years.

“A few years ago we had to allow into the country — and we benefited from it — very highly skilled medical staff,” he has told a newspaper. “We have now done a huge amount to train a new generation of medical staff in our country. We are now looking at how we can close the skills gap in this country so we can take occupations off the list where we need to recruit from abroad. Immigration will fall.”

In the interview with the Daily Mail he explained that one of the reasons that immigration would fall is “the tightening of the new points system” which, he said, will continue to tighten over the next few months. “One of the reasons for the points system is to make sure that nobody without a skill will come into the country. We are looking at the kind of skills we as a country need.

“We don’t want as an open economy to stop businesses being able to recruit where it’s an entirely specialist area. Companies keep telling us that this is absolutely important to their future.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6913293.ece