MP calls for migrant finger print checks

The call came from Dudley North Labour MP Ian Austin.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Austin criticised the Government for failing to meet its immigration target and cutting the number of people turned away at the border.

He said he has held a dozen public meetings in Dudley over the last six weeks in which people discussed concerns about immigration.

Mr Austin said: "The government has completely failed to meet their immigration target and the number stopped at the border and sent home has actually fallen by 45 per cent.

"Why won't they bring in exit checks to count people in and out, why won't they bring back finger print checks for illegal migrants at Calais, why won't they stop people claiming benefits for children abroad and change the law to make it easier to deport EU criminals for a first offence when they first arrive?"

Immigration minister James Brokenshire has come under fire for claiming immigration had been cut by a quarter.

But he also attacked Labour's record in office.

He said: "Under their watch, they allowed 2.5 million people to come into this country.

"I say it is absolutely right that our focus remains on returning net migration to sustainable levels, from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands."

In a letter to shadow minister David Hanson, the head of the Statistics Agency Sir Andrew Dilnot said: " "The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimate that net migration between April 2013 and March 2014 was 243,000.

"This is 77,000, or 24 per cent, lower than the recent peak of 320,000 which occurred in the year ending June 2005. These may be the figures to which Mr Brokenshire was referring. While it is estimated net migration has fallen by about a quarter since the peak in the year ending June 2005, this reduction did not occur solely during the term of the present Government."