Hampshire:
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that his government wanted "good immigration, not mass immigration" during a controversial speech laying out conservative plans to cut the number of immigrants coming to the United Kingdom.
The government announced tighter controls for those on student visas and a cap on the number of skilled worker migrants.
In his speech, Mr Cameron said that between 1997 and 2009 2.2 million more had arrived in the UK than had left to live abroad, he said it was the largest influx the country had ever seen and had put pressure on communities up and down the country.
Strain showed between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government over the issue as Business Secretary Vince Cable branded the Prime Minister's comments 'unwise' and expressed concern they would inflame extremism.
In a bid to take the heat out of the debate, Cameron said controlling immigration was the only way to "starve extremist parties of the oxygen of public anxiety that they thrive on".
It was at the previous Labour government that Cameron made his most scathing comments saying that their system had kept many able Brits out of work and on benefits.
He said that the blame lay "at the door of our woeful welfare system and the last government who comprehensively failed to reform it."
However, the Prime Minister also praised the valuable contribution that many immigrants make to the community and the economy.
The government announced tighter controls for those on student visas and a cap on the number of skilled worker migrants.
In his speech, Mr Cameron said that between 1997 and 2009 2.2 million more had arrived in the UK than had left to live abroad, he said it was the largest influx the country had ever seen and had put pressure on communities up and down the country.
Strain showed between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government over the issue as Business Secretary Vince Cable branded the Prime Minister's comments 'unwise' and expressed concern they would inflame extremism.
In a bid to take the heat out of the debate, Cameron said controlling immigration was the only way to "starve extremist parties of the oxygen of public anxiety that they thrive on".
It was at the previous Labour government that Cameron made his most scathing comments saying that their system had kept many able Brits out of work and on benefits.
He said that the blame lay "at the door of our woeful welfare system and the last government who comprehensively failed to reform it."
However, the Prime Minister also praised the valuable contribution that many immigrants make to the community and the economy.
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