09/11/2009 - Rational immigration debate needed
Home Secretary Alan Johnson has called for a rational debate on immigration, saying that avoiding the issue has allowed the British National Party take advantage of it.
Mr Johnson told The Independent: "People think we have shied away from a debate on it. They may well be right.
"The public deserves a rational debate on this, rather than what they sometimes get, which is at the extreme end of the scale."
Although immigration had been good for Britain "culturally, socially and certainly economically, he said, he warned that without a proper public debate the BNP will step into the breach.
He said: "The BNP would take the absence of a national debate as the green light to distort the debate. It has absolutely no inhibition about lying about these issues."
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling has accused the Government of failing to stem the immigration issue and of "not enforcing the penalties it's put in place to deal with firms that employ them".
A Home Office spokesman said: "We are determined to crack down on illegal workers and those who employ them, and the civil penalty system is one of the ways we are doing that."
Copyright © Press Association 2009
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