Golf courses or people?

Stephen Nickell, a board member at the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the Government’s tax and spending watchdog, told MPs that immigration is “not very important” economically. He admitted the public is worried about the number of migrants, but said only 10 per cent of the country was urbanised. Britain is not “full up” and has “masses of space” for new buildings. He pointed out that Surrey has more land devoted to golf courses than housing. “There’s plenty of room, these issues are really not very important,” he added. “People think about these things on the basis of their experience and what they read in the newspapers. Most of the things that people object to arise because there are just more people.”

He continued: "The general consensus is that for the native population, the existing population, immigration may be a little bit good, it may be a little bit bad economically. But there isn't overall that much in it.”

He conceded that migrants may have held back the pay of unskilled migrants but insisted: “Some 35 per cent of health professional are migrants. It’s quite plain that, if they weren’t there, the health service would be in absolutely dire straits.”

Latest estimates suggest that more than a quarter of all UK consultants are not British