Labour will NOT set limit on immigrant numbers, says Miliband as he blasts Cameron's 'false promises' on cap

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated: 09:38 EST, 4 May 2011

'I am not going to pluck figures out of the air which we can't deliver on': Ed Miliband admitted Labour made mistakes on immigration but has criticised plans for a cap

Labour leader Ed Miliband accused David Cameron today of making 'false promises' about a cap on immigration.

The Prime Minister will not be able to deliver his aim of reducing the flow of incomers from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands a year, he said.

Mr Miliband admitted that the former Labour administration 'under-estimated significantly' the number of migrants who would come from Eastern Europe, which had an impact on the wages and conditions of home-grown workers.

But he insisted that he would not set a target to cut migration, or even make it an aspiration of his party.

Mr Miliband told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'What is the real danger in the immigration debate? It is politicians making false promises.

'David Cameron says we are going to reduce immigration to tens of thousands. I am not going to make that promise, because I don't think he can deliver on that promise.

'He can't control the number of people coming in from Eastern Europe, at least from the 27 countries already in the EU.

'I think this cap is a very dubious thing. I am not going to pluck figures out of the air which we can't deliver on.'

Asked whether he would not regard it as an aspiration to reduce the number of immigrants to the tens of thousands, Mr Miliband replied: 'I don't think you can make that kind of judgment because it depends on the economic situation in Britain at the time, it depends on a whole range of social issues.'

Any attempt to cut back on freedom of movement within the EU would impact on the estimated two million Britons working in continental Europe and would not be a 'realistic' response to the issues, said Mr Miliband.

'Let's have an immigration debate which is realistic about what can be delivered, which understands the feelings people have and also acts on the underlying issues people face in their lives, whether it is wages, housing or other public services.'

False promises? Labour leader Ed Miliband said he does not think Prime Minister David Cameron can deliver his promise to cut immigration by thousands

However, Mr Miliband accepted that Labour made mistakes on immigration while in power, saying the party underestimated the scale of immigration from Eastern Europe and could have done more to protect workers' wages.

Following Mr Miliband's remarks, Immigration Minister Damian Green said: 'Just like on the economy, Labour are in denial on immigration - they refuse to admit that levels of migration were too high under Labour. Their message on immigration seems to be "Vote for us and we will do it all over again".

'Labour claim to support controlled migration but they won't support our plans to reduce immigration. They have attacked our cap on economic migration and our reforms to the student visa route to tackle abuse.

'Only the Government is committed to bringing down net migration back to the levels of the 1990s - the tens of thousands not the hundreds of thousands.'

The Labour leader's comments come after the National Institute for Economic and Social Research said the wave of migrants who came to the UK from Poland and other former Communist states had an 'insignificant' impact on growth.

In just five years after EU expansion in 2004, they pushed up Britain’s population by 700,000 - a rise of more than one per cent.

However, they added a third of that - just 0.38 per cent - to Britain’s economic output over the same period, the thinktank said.

Boosting the economy? A new thinktank report claims the effect of mass immigration from the EU had little effect on the UK economy