We need a calm, considered debate and practical policies to respond to the lifting of transitional controls for Bulgaria and Romania this week. Sadly, from the Government, we’ve had little of either.

David Cameron and the Conservatives have been rushing around with a frenzy of last-minute briefings and announcements, and ramping up the rhetoric. But they still aren’t addressing the practical problems around those who exploit migrant workers to undercut local businesses and staff. The last-minute confusion and heightened rhetoric is alarming rather than reassuring, and risks fuelling hostility, too.

However, the Liberal Democrats’ position - suggesting there is no problem - won’t reassure people either. In a global economy, trade, travel and migration is really important for Britain. People are concerned about the impact of European migration, particularly on low-paid work and there are sensible policies we should pursue to make the immigration system fairer for all.

That is why Labour won’t ramp up the rhetoric or join in empty tough language that just increases hostility and tension. Instead we’ll set out sensible, practical policies to help address the real concerns people have about the impact of immigration on the labour market and on some communities.

The Government needs to take a calm and sensible approach and bring in the practical reforms we need around EU migration to make the system fairer for all.

In a global economy where people travel and trade more than ever, and we depend on the best international talent, immigration is important to Britain’s future as well as to our history. But it needs to be managed and controlled.

Labour got some things wrong on immigration in Government. For example we should have had transitional controls for Eastern Europe in 2004 and we should have looked more at the impact on low-skilled jobs and pay. We have listened and learned, while the Tories and Lib Dems aren’t learning enough of those lessons.

That’s why nine months ago we set out practical steps better to control and manage immigration that should have been introduced in an Immigration Bill this year and could have helped address concerns about EU migration.

We proposed benefit restrictions to make clear to all that people coming to Britain are contributing, not claiming benefits. The vast majority of EU citizens in Britain are working hard and contributing to our economy and public finances, but the system needs to be seen to be fair. It would have been better for Ministers to introduce those in a calm way early last year, rather than in an eleventh-hour rush.

We also want to see action to stop immigration being abused and exploited as a source of cheap labour to undercut wages and jobs.

That means stronger enforcement of the minimum wage, and action against gangmasters or employers who put migrant workers in overcrowded accommodation then exploit them on poverty pay - undercutting local workers and responsible businesses too.

There is a real problem with some agencies too. We’ve seen reports of agencies that only recruit from abroad, exclude local workers from jobs, and use loopholes to reduce employment rights. That’s why we called over a year ago for Government to act. Local workers should never be excluded from employment opportunities. We don’t want a race to the bottom between employers or countries on support for workers or on social security.

And it means making sure that employers are helping train the next generation rather than just relying on trained staff from abroad.

Take the Domino’s Pizza boss who said he needed low-skilled workers from abroad to fill all his vacancies. Yet if he has trouble filling jobs, why doesn’t he pay staff more - many aren’t even paid the living wage.

Or take social care. 200,000 care workers a year are paid less than the minimum wage. There is no proper training scheme for the young unemployed to get those jobs (since the Tories abolished Care Direct). And employers recruit heavily from abroad. Those three things are related. Why isn’t the Government demanding training for local people to get jobs, cracking down on unscrupulous agencies and properly enforcing the minimum wage?

These are the practical things the Government should be doing to reduce the demand for low-skilled labour from abroad and to make the system fairer too.

What have we had from Ministers instead? Nothing to ensure a fairer deal on jobs and wages. Only introducing the benefit changes we called for at the last minute - creating a sense of panic rather than plan. Delays to the immigration bill because of internal Tory rows. And a phoney row between David Cameron and Nick Clegg, blaming each other, for party political purposes.

As for the longer term, we’ve said for some time that the framework for free movement of labour in Europe should be reformed - including looking again at transitional controls, social security and labour market rules, and the impact on communities and services of levels of migration too. But that should be a sensible debate with a proper strategy and workable proposals, instead of the current hints and winks from Government about long-term promises that nobody takes seriously any more, and that won’t make a jot of difference to the impact of immigration next year.

All parties need to work to build public confidence and reform the immigration system to make it more fair.

The problem is that people can see the growing gap between the Government’s rhetoric and reality, and it just undermines confidence further, and risks fuelling hostility and tension too.

Britain has always been an outward-looking country dependent on travel and trade. Hardworking and talented people have come for many generations and contributed to our nation. For the sake of investment, jobs and business in the future we mustn’t turn our backs on those traditions. Stronger controls and better management so that immigration is fair for all help us to do just that and that is why a calm long-term approach is so important.