Immigration to be reduced
Damian Green says the new government will introduce measures to properly control immigration following figures out today that show an increase in the UK population.
Responding to statistics which showed the population increased in 2008-09, the minister for immigration said the new government intends to reduce immigration numbers back to 1990s levels.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that the population of the UK was 61.8m in mid-2009, an increase of 394,000 on the previous year.
The report showed a total population increase of 2.7m compared with 2001.
‘Far too high’
The minister for immigration said: ‘We believe that immigration has been far too high in recent years, which is why the new government will reduce net migration back down to the levels of the 1990s – to tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands.
‘Over the coming weeks and months the public will see us tackle this issue by introducing a wide range of new measures to ensure that immigration is properly controlled, including a limit on work permits, actions on marriage and an effective system of regulating the students who come here.’