It may or may not be fair (with Harold Wilson in the field it’s a tough contest) to say that Tony Blair has proved to be the most destructive British Prime Minister (in terms of what he has done to his own country) of the last half century, but one apect of the mess that he has left behind him, the failure to control the borders, grows ever more apparent.
Here’s the latest (via the Daily Telegraph):
More than half of all new jobs created under Labour have gone to foreigners, the Government has been forced to admit. First, on Monday night, the government was forced to admit that the number of migrant workers who had taken jobs since Labour came to power was 1.1million, rather than the previous figure given of 800,000. However, in interviews yesterday morning, Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, insisted that the majority of jobs created since 1997 had gone to British workers with immigrants taking just 40.7 per cent. But last night it emerged that the 1.1million migrant workers constituted 52 per cent of the 2.1 million new jobs created under Labour. Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “The Home Secretary is either being deliberately misleading or does not know what is going on.” There was further speculation last night that the figure was higher still, after the Government admitted that it did not include immigrants in temporary accommodation. Frank Field, a former cabinet minister, claimed the figure should be 1.6 million as the new estimate was based on figures from 2003, before the European Union was enlarged..