Lords' report exposes Labour's lies on the 'benefits' of mass immigration

Gordon Brown today rejected heavyweight calls for a cap on immigration, saying workers from abroad were vital to the economy.

He dismissed a major report that attacked Government claims that migrants boost the economy, saying they were as important as foreign investment in the City.

“Most people in London know we benefit substantially, not just from inward investment, but from the number of workers who come in to join them,” Mr Brown said.

He spoke out after a study by senior peers, including two exchancellors, concluded that Government claims of a £6 billion boost to national earnings from immigration were misleading.

The devastating cross-party report went on to:

•Dismiss Ministers' "preposterous" assertion that migrants boost the economy by £6billion a year;

•Reject Government claims that foreigners will help to defuse the pensions timebomb;

•Demolish the "fundamentally flawed" Downing Street argument that migrants fill vacancies in the economy;

•And warn that migrants will force up house prices by 10 per cent in the next two decades.

Immigration minister Liam Byrne has also waded into the row this morning by claiming the inquiry put forward many of the points he had made when he was first appointed in 2006.

"The report actually confirms that about £6billion was added to the economy in 2006, that is a big number," he told GMTV.

"What it is also saying, though, I think, is that we should be taking into account the wider impact of immigration when we set immigration policy - now I think that is absolutely right."

His remarks came as the report, by the Lords economic affairs committee, which includes former Chancellors Nigel Lawson and Norman Lamont, economists and captains of industry, said immigration had had "little or no positive impact" on the living standards of the existing population.

[...]

In fact, the big winners were the migrants themselves who earn higher wages than in their homeland and can also send money home.

Some British workers were even seeing their incomes fall, while up to 100,000 youngsters have been unable to find work.

And, by pushing up house prices, migrants will keep young families off the housing ladder, the committee found.

With migration swelling the population by 190,000 every year, Labour has been keen to stress the economic benefits, not least over pensions.

But the peers said the argument did not "hold up to scrutiny" because the migrants will grow old and claim pensions of their own.

[...]

Lord Wakeham, the Conservative former Cabinet Minister, was chairman of the inquiry.

He said: "The Government's use of impact on overall GDP as the key measure is preposterous and irrelevant because it does not reflect the economic well-being of the existing population."

The committee said: "There has been little or no positive impact on the living standards of the existing population."

Asked if the economic policies pursued by Labour over the last decade had been a mistake, Lord Wakeham replied: "We have made it abundantly clear we do not believe there has been any great economic benefit from the policy it has pursued."

[...]

Ministers have accepted migrants are placing pressure on schools and hospitals, but have balanced this against the so-called "huge" economic benefits.

Now they will be forced to accept the social harm from migration, with little or nothing to fall back upon.

David Coleman, an Oxford University academic, says the wider costs of immigration are almost £8.8billion a year.

Professor Coleman said that the costs to the public sector are £1.5billion to run the asylum system, £280million to teach English to migrants and at least £330million to treat illnesses such as HIV.

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The immigration scam is one of the biggest in history. It's nothing more than an elaborate sceeme for vote fishing, because the multi- culti advocates are on the left hand side on the political scale- and they know- that virtually every new immigrant is a possible vote for them selfs. By all means. Let people come here (and there), but then let them be highly skilled workers- not the riff-raff we are letting in right now! Let people come here on temporary 1- year workers visas. If they get a job during that time, they should be wellcomed to stay. But if not- they should have to pay for their return ticket...