UK immigration shock
150,000 illegal immigrants enter UK each year, says whistleblower ex-Home Office boss
The bombshell figure – 3,000 every week - means the true number of net new arrivals is 50 per cent higher than official figures, pushing the total up to 400,000
By Tom Newton Dunn, Political Editor
16th June 2017, 12:01 am
Updated: 17th June 2017, 4:23 am
A SHOCKING 150,000 illegal immigrants are pouring into Britain every year, a whistleblower former Home Office boss today claims.
Former Director General of Immigration Enforcement David Wood insists the secret government estimate is being hidden from the public.
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150,000 illegal immigrants are entering Britain every year, it has been claimed
He also lifts the lid on the woefully inadequate level of funding to track down and deport illegals.
The bombshell figure – 3,000 every week - means the true annual number of net new arrivals is 50 per cent higher than official figures, pushing the total up to a huge 400,000.
The claims come in a withering report Mr Wood co-authored for the Civitas think tank along with a second former aide to Mrs May - ex-Home Office speechwriter Alasdair Palmer.
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The bombshell figure was revealed by ex-Director General of Immigration Enforcement David Wood
Both served under PM Theresa May, while she was Home Secretary.
The pair slam the Home Office’s cover up as “obviously wrong”, adding: “Keeping them secret may save ministers from embarrassment. But it makes proper policy planning impossible”.
The Home Office has refused to publish any estimate of illegal immigration since 2005.
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Mr Wood served in the Home Office under Theresa May when she was Home Secretary
In 2010, campaign group MigrationWatch UK estimated there were 1.2m illegals in the UK.
The report also reveals the total budget for immigration enforcement is £440m a year - less than a third it would cost to deport even half the illegal migrants added every year.
It costs an average of £18,000 to remove each foreign national – meaning £2.8billion a year would be needed to deport them all.
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The ex-Home Office boss suggests the secret government estimate is being hidden from the public
But instead of an uplift, the latest round of cuts will see the Home Office slash its enforcement budget by 25%, or more than £100million.
The latest net official figures last month revealed 248,000 immigrants arrived last year legally.
The report also lifts the lid on how current immigration controls are not enforced properly, and opportunities to chronicle the true scale of the problem are regularly ignored.
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The Home Office has refused to publish any estimate of illegal immigration since 2005
Ministers refused to discuss the secret illegals figure last night.
But Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis insisted: “Our laws are being enforced. In fact, it is harder than ever before for those with no right to be here to remain in the UK.
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Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis claimed it's 'harder than ever for illegal immigrants to remain in the UK'
“Whether it is working, renting a property, opening a bank account or driving a car, we can now take tougher action on those who flout the law.”
Mr Lewis added: “We are continuing to reform legal routes to the UK from outside Europe and will use the opportunity of leaving the EU to take control of immigration from within the EU too”.
