By Lord Green of Deddington
Chairman of Migration Watch UK
The Times, 3rd February, 2016
Sir,
Your leading article “Boris is right” (Feb 3) is entirely accurate on the consequences for immigration of the deal now on offer. Effective measures to close off sham marriages would be useful but would reduce numbers by, at a guess, only about 10,000 or 20,000. Net migration from the EU is now running at 180,000 a year, nearly half the overall total.
The “emergency brake”, whatever the eventual detail, will not much affect this considerable flow. A general reduction in benefits as universal credit is brought in will be counteracted by increased incomes resulting from the introduction of the national living wage.
The prospect, therefore, is now clear. It would be for continuing large inflows from the EU for so long as incomes in the UK remain a multiple of those in the East European member states.
Lord Green of Deddington
Chairman, Migration Watch UK