Leo McKinstry

Leo McKinstry is a British author and journalist, noted for his extensive coverage of British and Irish history and best-selling sporting biographies. Since 2005 he has been a columnist for the Daily Express.

Mass immigration will affect general election results says LEO MCKINSTRY

THE liberal metropolitan elite might like to prattle about the benefits of mass immigration but most of the British public know that the wilful destruction of our borders has been a catastrophe for our country.

The migrant vote could be decisive in some constituencies in BritainGETTY

The migrant vote could be decisive in some constituencies in Britain

Living standards have been driven down and public services put under intolerable strain. With an influx of almost 600,000 foreigners arriving every year it is little wonder that many Britons now feel like aliens in their own land.

Even democracy is being subverted. We once had a voting system that was renowned for its integrity and stability. But the extraordinary levels of uncontrolled immigration are beginning to distort the entire political process as elections become increasingly tainted by foreign influences, ethnic divisions and outright corruption.

Incredibly we are fast moving towards a situation where immigrants born overseas will hold the balance of power. In the coming general election the outcome could be decided by voters who were not raised here or who have barely contributed to our society.

That reality was spelled out in a report last week from the University of Manchester and the Migrant Rights Network, which revealed that almost four million foreign–born residents will be eligible to vote in May 2015, comprising about 10 per cent of the whole electorate.

In much of the country, especially the crucial battlegrounds of London and the Midlands, the weight of the migrant vote will be decisive.

According to this report there are two constituencies where foreign–born electors are actually in the majority: East Ham and Brent North, both in London and held by Labour.

In 25 seats in England and Wales at least a third of voters were born overseas, while the researchers estimate that there are 70 constituencies where the migrant share of the electorate is more than double the incumbent's majority.

Four million foreign-born people can vote

Leo McKinstry

These foreign–born voters are largely made up of two groups. First there are the migrants who have been enfranchised by becoming British citizens. Second there are the huge numbers of Commonwealth citizens who, due to an anachronistic legacy from the Empire, are entitled to vote in our elections as soon as they settle here.

Although much of the recent debate on immigration has focused on free movement within the EU the fact is that the vast majority of the influx over recent years has come from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. That means 1.7 million migrants from the Indian subcontinent can vote here, along with 182,000 Nigerians, 168,000 South Africans and 130,000 Jamaicans.

An official inquiry in 2009 recommended that non–British Commonwealth citizens be barred from voting in our elections as Britons living in places such as Nigeria, Pakistan and India cannot vote there. Predictably Gordon Brown's government refused to implement this for an obvious reason: Labour derives huge support from immigrant communities.

Surveys have shown that at the 2010 general election 70 per cent of migrants voted Labour and just 16 per cent backed the Conservatives. That partly explains why Labour were so keen to open the floodgates.

With contemptible opportunism Labour saw a big electoral advantage in expanding their client base by the creation of a vast new army of loyal, antiTory foreign–born supporters. But this has meant that, tragically, our political system is now locked into a cycle of permanent demographic revolution.

The Tories and Ukip are told that because the migrant vote is now so crucial they will never regain power unless they embrace multiculturalism. In practice that is just a recipe for looser border controls and the arrival of even more Labourvoting foreigners.

In addition the pivotal influence of the migrant vote also means the introduction of divisive, American–style identity politics where candidates have to calibrate their appeal to different community groups and ethnic blocs. This undermines social cohesion but it also creates a political hierarchy of victimhood where self–appointed minority leaders seek ever greater state support by wailing about discrimination.

This emphasis on grievance can distort public policy by promoting a fear about accusations of racism or Islamophobia as we have seen in the paralysis over the abuse of vulnerable white girls by Pakistani gangs in Rotherham.

Just as damaging is the perversion of the democratic process. Uncontrolled immigration has led to the import of widespread ballot–box abuses from the developing world, fuelled by the introduction of mass postal voting and the relaxation of checks on electoral registration, both measures promoted by Labour.

In parts of immigrantdominated inner–cities the electoral registers are becoming works of fiction while postal voting is "open to fraud on an industrial scale", in the words of Judge Richard Mawrey who has tried many cases of electoral manipulation.

Even the supine Electoral Commission was forced last year to set up an inquiry into 16 council areas where Asian communities were said to be "vulnerable" to electoral fraud. That is the debased culture that mass immigration has brought.

Our democracy, like our society, can only be rebuilt if we tighten our borders.

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