David Hanson MP, Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister, responding to a report by the Home Affairs Committee, said:

“The Government’s failure to estimate the impact of Romanian / Bulgarian immigration and to take action to prevent foreign criminals entering the UK are the latest in a long line of failures which show David Cameron’s rhetoric on immigration does not match the reality.

“This report shows that the Government woefully failed in its primary duty to prepare for the ending of transitional controls on Romania and Bulgaria. Only at the last minute did they take action we had called for and not to have made any estimate of impacts shows a damning lack of planning by Theresa May and David Cameron. Not for the first time this Government’s failure on immigration allowed scare stories to run and run that could have been avoided with a simple assessment of the facts. In the meantime they have put UK citizens at risk by not fully adopting European co-operation agreements to share information that would stop foreign criminals entering the UK.

“This report shows that the governments incompetence in managing the immigration system is only matched by its ability to stoke anti-european feeling to the detriment of the British people.”