Shoppers and traders in Dudley welcomed Tory plans to cap immigration as Shadow Minister Damian Green stopped off in the town’s market today.

They raised concerns about race relations, foreign workers flooding the job market, and crime. One woman complained English people were treated “like second class citizens in their own country”.

Mr Green, visiting the town in support of Dudley candidates Graeme Brown and Chris Kelly, blamed the problems on Labour allowing immigration to get “out of control”.

Stall holder Trevor Hopkins, aged 50, told Mr Green his brother-in-law had gone out of business due to the recession. However the former builder had been unable to find work since his firm went under because he could not compete with the cheap labour migrants could offer.

Mr Green said: “We have got two and a half million people unemployed in this country. We want to control immigration so that there are enough jobs for British people and we also want to introduce much better training.”

Dudley South candidate Mr Kelly told Mr Hopkins, of Edenbridge View, Dudley, only workers with skills which native Britons could not provide would be allowed into the country under Tory plans.

Father of one Mr Hopkins also complained prisons were “too easy” which encouraged re-offending. Mr Green agreed prisons should be “toughened up”.

Retired mother of two Kay Steventon, aged 63, told the Shadow Immigration Minister there was “a lot of unrest” in the town amid plans for an £18m mosque.

Mrs Steventon, of Poplar Avenue, Tipton, said: “Everybody who is English that I know is of the same opinion. We are treated like second class citizens in our own country.”

Earlier 73 year old Clive Shaw had challenged Mr Green about the mosque proposals, saying it was “ridiculous” a decision to grant outline planning permission had been approved by an inspector in Bristol.

Mr Green assured the father of four, of Russells Hall, Dudley, that David Cameron would return powers to local councils to make planning decisions.