David Hanson MP, Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister, responding to Vince Cable’s comments on immigration, said:

“Vince Cable is right to say that the Prime Minister’s net migration measure is actually rising and not falling to the tens of thousands as he promised. He could also point out that the Home Office’s obsession with the net migration target ignores illegal immigration and is actually pushing migration into less controlled routes. This gap between the Government’s rhetoric and reality on immigration is continuing to undermine public confidence.

"As Business Secretary Vince Cable could also be making the changes we have called for and need now. He could be working on improving enforcement of the minimum wage, tightening recruitment agencies recruiting solely from abroad, stopping them paying less and extending gangmaster legislation to new areas - all of which are issues of basic fairness but which would also make sure that local workers are not excluded from job opportunities and that migrants are not unfairly exploited in a race to the bottom. However he and this Government have so far refused to act on any of these areas in any meaningful way.”