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Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

As I thought, it will be done through secondary legislation. I believe that the operation of the immigration strategy will depend greatly on the detail of that legislation. I had also hoped to be able to welcome long overdue measures to strengthen security at borders, following the hastily added sixth manifesto pledge promising to keep Britain’s borders protected. Notwithstanding the Home Secretary’s comments, there is little in the Bill to meet that promise. Even after it comes into force, two thirds of Britain’s ports will lack the 24-hour security that would genuinely help us to keep track of the number of people coming into our country. The Home Secretary spoke at length about his five-year strategy. I had hoped that the Government had learnt the lessons of recent years, and decided to be open and honest with the people on this important subject. Yet last week, the Government finally confirmed what had been rumoured, and denied by them, for so long: that there may be as many as 570,000 illegal immigrants living in Britain today. We still do not know whether that figure includes dependants. What we do know is that it includes only those who registered in the 2001 census—not necessarily a very likely activity for someone trying to avoid the law. So in all probability, the 570,000 figure is an underestimate. But what makes this revelation more damaging is the Government apparently misleading the public about the extent of the problem in the run-up to the general election. Just three months ago, in the throes of the election campaign, the Prime Minister said that it was ““impossible”” to know how many people might be living illegally in the country. He added,"““I don’t think there’s any point in speculating””." That was despite having commissioned an estimate of illegal immigrant numbers the previous year. In the same month—April of this year—and again during the throes of the election campaign, the Home Secretary backed up the Prime Minister. He said that"““There are no official estimates and any estimates would be highly speculative.””" Dutifully, a former Immigration Minister said that the Government knew the 570,000 figure to be ““grossly inaccurate””. Now, his successor claims that the Government published it last year, which is clearly not true; in fact, the Government suppressed it in Professor Salt’s document of last year. The Minister in question obviously was not paying attention to what his colleagues said in the middle of the election campaign. At the very least, the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the former and current Immigration Ministers owe the British people an apology for misleading them when they had the chance to pass judgment at the ballot box. Not for the first time, this Government have some serious questions to answer about the way in which they respond to genuine public concern about asylum and immigration.