Tony Blair was warned of Eastern European immigration surge following EU expansion
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Tony Blair's Labour government pressed ahead with plans to grant unrestricted access to the UK to migrants from eastern Europe despite mounting concerns among senior ministers, according to newly-released official files. Papers released to National Archives in Kew, west London, show deputy prime minister John Prescott and foreign secretary Jack Straw both urged delay, warning of a surge in immigration unless some controls were put in place.
But others - including home secretary David Blunkett - argued that the economy needed the "flexibility and productivity of migrant labour" if it was to continue to prosper. The Home Office had predicted the impact on immigration numbers of allowing unrestricted access to the UK jobs market when the eight mainly former Soviet bloc states joined the EU in May 2004 would be relatively limited.
But within weeks the files show the numbers arriving were far outstripping previous estimates, with one official saying they faced an "elephant trap" and advising ministers to "err on the side of publishing less rather than more" when it came to releasing official data.
Mr Straw later admitted that the failure to put in place any transitional controls - as nearly all other EU nations had done - had been a "spectacular mistake" which had far-reaching consequences. It was widely seen as having contributed to a major increase in immigration in the years that followed - with net migration rising to more than 200,000 a year - with cheap labour from Poland and other new member states blamed for undercutting local workers.
