Yesterday I spent the day in Beckenham, Hayes and Park Langley where I visited Club Langley and was photographed with Matthew Dickens, one of its directors. In the evening a large team of us canvassed in the Oakwood Avenue area of Copers Cope and ended up in the Jolly Woodman watching Morris dancers celebrating St George’s Day.
The subject of immigration came up again as I was bumping into people yesterday. I recall well that I campaigned in 2010 on a Conservative Manifesto that promised to bring immigration down to tens of thousands. But we have not. We have failed to do it. I apologise for that. But there are good reasons why we did not.
We now seem to have immigration from outside Europe under control. But so far we have had little success at achieving controls over other Europeans entering and staying in the UK - because of European Union (EU) rules and just a little obstruction by Liberal Democrats. It is largely an influx of Europeans which has stopped our plans and, so far, there seems little we can do about it.
The problem is that under existing EU regulations its citizens can come and work in the UK without restrictions. As we have created more jobs in the UK than the rest of the EU put together our country has become a work magnet. For example the BBC has recently reported that more French people live in London than in Bordeaux, Nantes or Strasbourg. Our Capital is also now the 6th largest ‘French’ city. Indeed London now has its own elected deputy sitting in the French National Assembly!
Of course this huge influx puts pressure on public services and social cohesion. Getting back control of our borders must thus be a key part of our negotiations with the EU prior to a referendum planned by us before the end of 2017.
With regard to people coming illegally from outside Europe we have certainly taken effective action. To date we have stripped 850 bogus colleges of their rights to sponsor foreign students coming (and often staying) in the UK. We have also cracked down on illegal working and sham marriages. In addition we have reduced the number of appeal routes to stop spurious attempts to remain in our country rather than be expelled. Such measures have made it far harder for non-Europeans to live in the UK illegally.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats have little real intention to control immigration and under either party the gates to the UK would be thrown wide open once more. Conservatives may not have reduced immigration to tens of thousands a year yet but we are the only major political party that wants to do so and most certainly it will be a central plank in our negotiation terms prior to a European Union Referendum in 2017.