Cooper says Cameron is “taking people for fools” over immigration

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has accused the Government of a “massive gap between rhetoric and reality” in their approach to immigration. David Cameron had promised to bring net migration down to the tens of thousands, but new statistics today showed that it has in fact risen again to 318,000 last year – with sharp rises of immigration from both inside and outside the EU.

Labour say that breaking promises on immigration fuels the popularity of anti-immigration parties like UKIP, who “exploit people’s concerns” when they think the major political parties will not act. Cooper has also accused the Tories of attempting to copy some of Labour’s policies to tackle illegal immigration, while ignoring the problem of the exploitation of migrants who have come to the UK legally.

Cooper said:

“David Cameron is taking people for fools. On the day he has promised yet again to cut net migration to the tens of thousands, these figures show it is over three times that target. Both EU and non-EU net migration are considerably higher than in June 2010, after five years of David Cameron and Theresa May’s broken promises. This massive gap between rhetoric and reality, between promise and delivery, just destroys trust in anything Ministers say on immigration.

“While the Government have attempted to copy some of Labour’s plans on tackling exploitation or illegal immigration, no one will believe their plans for enforcement. They are still ignoring the problem of employers exploiting legal migration to undercut local wages and jobs – we need a new offence of exploitation to make the system fair for all.

“Promises consistently broken by the Prime Minister and the Conservative Party simply erode public trust, and make it easier for UKIP and others to exploit people’s concerns. Immigration is important for Britain, that’s why it needs to be controlled and managed so the system is fair. Rather than empty promises, David Cameron should be taking sensible, practical steps to make sure the system is controlled, managed and fair.”

Over at ConservativeHome, Mark Wallace says that Cameron is “now more exposed on immigration than before”.