Conservatives Pledge To Slash Immigration Levels

Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Dan Byles, the former soldier who will stand in North Warwickshire & Bedworth at the forthcoming General Election, this week welcomed David Cameron's call for immigration levels to be brought back down to the levels seen in the mid 1990s.

David Cameron made the comments during an interview with BBC presenter Andrew Marr, in which he said he did not support a UK population of 70 million, and wanted to see net immigration reduced to the tens of thousands, rather than the hundreds of thousands as it stands presently. That would represent a drop of around 75% from current levels.

The comments come just weeks after a leaked Home Office memo admitted that Labour's new points based system is "significantly weaker" than the previous system, and has allowed a large number of bogus students to enter Britain.

In the last decade, net immigration has averaged around 200,000 per year.

Welcoming David Cameron's comments, local Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Dan Byles said:

"Over the last decade, despite the increased threat of terrorism among other considerations, Labour have completely lost control of our borders. They have no idea how many people have come to Britain from abroad in recent years and stayed here.

"Labour's failure to control our borders has more than just an impact on the UK population levels - which Labour ministers have stated publicly that they are happy to see soar towards the 70 million mark. It has a devastating impact on vulnerable people, such as the estimated 4,000 to 10,000 women trafficked into Britain for prostitution.

"Labour have failed to prevent illegal immigration, and have failed to cap legal immigration.

"Unfortunately, Labour's dismal record in this area has led some political Parties to call for an end to immigration altogether. That is neither practical nor desirable.

"Immigration is vital for a country with a globalised economy such as the UK, and we benefit from the doctors, IT professionals, business people and entrepreneurs who choose to come to the UK to settle - just as thousands of Brits every year take jobs overseas.

"But I agree with David Cameron's sensible suggestion that current rates are simply too high. We don't want to see the population of the UK reach 70 million through uncontrolled immigration. It is Conservative Party policy to put an annual cap on immigration and to adopt a robust, Australian style points based system. It is also our policy to establish a proper, uniformed border police force to effectively manage our borders. Such a force is sorely needed.

"This is just common sense - but sadly that is something that our current Government seems to be badly lacking."