We must take back control of immigration NOW – or we won’t have the homes, hospitals, surgeries and schools to cope
We must take back control of immigration NOW – or we won’t have the homes, hospitals, surgeries and schools to cope
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IT is time for Britain to take back control of immigration. I joined the UK Immigration Department just as the Immigration Act of 1971 came into force and, for a couple of decades, net migration was not an issue. We had full control over who we allowed to come and stay here — with the number of people settling here roughly the same as the number leaving.
![[Blurred photo of many commuters walking on London Bridge.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/commuters-london-bridge-london-england-967387062_91a9ea.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Now we learn that the population of Britain will reach 72.5million in seven years’ time. That’s an increase of 4.9million people by 2032 — and almost entirely due to immigration. For me that figure is far too high. We won’t be able to build the homes, hospitals, GP surgeries and schools — or find the staff — to cope with these numbers.
![[Migrants arriving in Dover, UK, wearing life vests.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/group-people-thought-migrants-brought-965747499_c6b999.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
We need to act now. Voters up and down the land, particularly those who will pay higher rents due to a shortage of housing, are rightly asking: how do we get the numbers down?. You won’t find the answer by gazing across the English Channel at the small boats crossing over from France.
Less than ten per cent of that rise was due to asylum seekers. While we do need to massively reduce the number of small boats to stop human smuggling and save lives, we also need to focus on how the other 90 per cent are joining our great nation, and why.
In Whitehall there are constant arguments between different departments with differing perspectives. It’s been going on for decades. From the mid-1990s I saw how attitudes within government changed, as more and more groups lobbied for an increase in workers and students brought in from overseas.
