The huge increases in immigration over the past decade were in part a politically-motivated attempt by ministers to socially engineer a more multicultural Britain, a former government adviser said yesterday.Andrew Neather, a speechwriter who worked in Downing Street for Tony Blair and in the Home Office for Jack Straw and David Blunkett, said Labour’s relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to “open up the UK to mass migration”.
As well as bringing in hundreds of thousands more migrants to plug labour market gaps, there was also a “driving political purpose” behind immigration policy, he revealed. Ministers hoped to radically change the country and by doing so “rub the Right’s nose in diversity”.
But Mr Neather said senior Labour figures were reluctant to discuss the policy, fearing it would alienate its “core working-class vote”.
Critics said the revelations showed a “conspiracy” within government to impose mass immigration for “cynical” political reasons.
On Question Time on Thursday night, Mr Straw was repeatedly quizzed about whether Labour’s immigration policies had left the door open for the BNP.
Writing in a London newspaper, Mr Neather revealed the “major shift” in immigration policy came after the publication of a policy paper from the Performance and Innovation Unit, a Downing Street think tank based in the Cabinet Office. The published version promoted the labour market case for immigration but Mr Neather said unpublished versions contained additional reasons. He wrote: “Earlier drafts I saw also included a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the government was going to make the UK truly multicultural.
“I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended — even if this wasn’t its main purpose — to rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.”
The “deliberate policy”, from late 2000 until “at least February last year”, when the new points based system was introduced, was to open up the UK to mass migration, he said.
Mr Neather defended the policy, saying mass immigration has “enriched” Britain, and made London a more attractive and cosmopolitan place. But he acknowledged that “nervous” ministers made no mention of the policy for fear of alienating Labour voters.
Mr Neather defended the policy, saying mass immigration has “enriched” Britain, and made London a more attractive and cosmopolitan place. But he acknowledged that “nervous” ministers made no mention of the policy for fear of alienating Labour voters.
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