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U.K. immigration proposal draws flak

LONDON: Britain’s Immigration Minister Phil Woolas was on Sunday accused of “pandering” to the Right after he said he proposed to impose more severe restrictions on immigration from non-European countries to protect British workers.

His party colleagues were surprised by the tone of his remarks in which he effectively accused immigrants of taking away British jobs and proposed a cap on the number of immigrants who should be allowed to enter Britain every year.

While anti-immigration lobby groups and the Tories have, for long, been demanding a cap on immigration, this is the first time that a Labour Minister has publicly supported the idea.

Until now, the government had maintained that the new points-based immigration system was designed precisely to make sure that only people with skills that Britain needed were allowed to come in.

Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said the Minister’s comments would be seen as “pandering to right-wing extremists.”

Another senior party MP and former Minister, Denis MacShane, described them as “inflammatory” and said they would hurt Britain’s image. Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said he was “astonished” that the Minister proposed to reverse the party’s long-standing policy against placing a limit on immigration.

Mr. Woolas’ tough rhetoric was also condemned by major trade unions, and immigration welfare groups.

Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, accused him of “leading the baying pack” against immigrants, while a spokesman of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said his proposal for a cap would “drive a coach and horses” through the points-based system.

Mr. Woolas made the remarks in an interview to The Times on Saturday.

In a blunt warning, he said: “It’s been too easy to get into the country in the past and it’s going to get harder.”

Mr. Woolas, whose Oldham constituency has a large Pakistani and Bangladeshi population, denied that he was pandering to racism.

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