Ed Miliband: We got it wrong on immigration

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Ed Miliband was curiously quiet last week in the wake of David Cameron’s major immigration speech last week. Yet Miliband has chosen to weigh in on the immigration debate tonight, telling the BBC that Labour got some aspects of immigration wrong.

Miliband told the BBC that:

“We lost trust and we lost touch, particularly in the south of England, I think that living standards is a big part of it, I think immigration is a part of it too.”

“I don’t think we lied, but I do think we got it wrong in a number of respects, first of all we underestimated the number of people coming in from Poland, and that had more of an effect therefore than we would otherwise have thought.”

“And secondly I think there is this really important issue of people coming together, more people coming into this country, and the pressures on peoples wages.”

Is Ed right about Labour’s record on immigration? After this intervention, we should expect the immigration debate in the party to run and run in the coming weeks.