700,000 migrants want a job

New figures showing more than 700,000 foreigners a year are seeking work in Britain raised fresh doubts over the Government's immigration controls.

The Tory analysis said the number of National Insurance numbers, which allow people to work, issued outnumbered by more than 100,000 the Government's immigration figures.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling also said that up to 16,000 immigrants came to work in some London boroughs in 2006/07. He said: "These figures are quite extraordinary. The system is either completely out of control or completely flawed."

Research by the House of Commons library showed that in total 713,540 NI numbers were given to non-nationals in 2006-07.

Mr Grayling said the official figure for the inflow of migrants to Britain in 2006 was 591,000. The Tory report showed that 16,160 foreigners were issued with National Insurance numbers in Newham in 2006-07, compared to a working age population of 165,900. In Brent, with a population of 183,600, more than 15,500 NI numbers were allocated, while in Ealing the figures were 14,300 out of a population of 208,300 and in Tower Hamlets 11,800 out of 148,900.

Ministers insist that a new pointsbased system, which will allow entry for highly-skilled workers, will help to tighten immigration controls.