William Bain
Main Page: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)Department Debates - View all William Bain's debates with the Home Office
(12 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)
19. What estimate she has made of the likely level of net migration in 2015.
The Minister for Immigration (Damian Green)
The latest published estimates show net migration in the year to March 2011 at 245,000. That figure remains too high, which is why the Government are pressing ahead with their reform of the immigration system. This will bring numbers down to sustainable levels in the tens of thousands by 2015.
Mr Bain
The Prime Minister has said that, “No ifs, no buts”, net migration will fall to the tens of thousands by the end of this Parliament. Given that net migration into the UK was 32,000 higher in the 12 months to March 2011 than it was in the previous 12 months, does the Minister believe that he will ever meet this target?
Damian Green
Yes, I do. I find complaints about high immigration from those on the Labour Benches a bit rich, given what they did to the immigration system. I simply point the hon. Gentleman to the figures for the past six months, because over the past two quarters the figures have started coming down. We are beginning to make a dent in the disaster of Labour’s immigration policy.