Labour ‘allowed 3.6million migrants in over 13 years to change Britain’

Net foreign migration during the Blair and Brown years topped 3.6 million – equivalent to the population of Britain’s five largest cities ­outside London, Migration Watch ­figures show.

The staggering number, four times higher than the previous 13 years and not including illegal immigrants, was a combination of “conspiracy and cock-up”, the survey found.

It claims the surge was caused by deliberate Labour policy in relaxing controls over immigrants.

Vast numbers were allowed to flock into the UK because of Labour’s ­failure to foresee the influx of millions of new EU citizens from eastern Europe.

And tens of thousands of bogus students took advantage of lax visa rules promoted under Tony Blair.

The new study comes just a week after the latest net migration figures hit 300,000, fuelled mainly by 190,000 newcomers from outside the EU.

Experts have argued this is due in part to a hangover from the situation set up by the Labour government between 1997 to 2010.

The new MigrationWatch report showed that although the ­initial leap in net migration in 1998 from 48,000 to 140,000 was “largely” beyond Labour’s control, “thereafter, there was a deliberate policy of ­loosening controls in almost every sector”.

Among Labour’s policy blunders highlighted in the report was the ditching of the “primary purpose rule” forcing foreigners to show they were not marrying Britons simply to enter the UK.

And reams of new asylum rules brought more immigrants seeking refuge but failed applicants were “encouraged” to stay illegally because just one in three were deported.

MigrationWatch chairman Lord Green of Deddington, warned: “There is nothing to suggest that Labour now have the political will to get the scale of immigration down to a sensible level, rather the reverse.

“The pressures from pro-immi­gration groups in and around any future Labour government would very likely lead to the gates being thrown open once more.”