Government takes aim at Mayor's amnesty plan

The Mayor of London's plans to study the potential benefits of an amnesty for illegal immigrants have been described as "naive" by the Government.

Boris Johnson yesterday reopened the debate over how to deal with hundreds of thousands of people working illegally in the UK, insisting that simply deporting them was "just not going to happen".

Immigration minister Phil Woolas said the move could lead to more people being exploited by traffickers.

Mr Johnson's comments risk opening a rift between himself and Tory leader David Cameron, with whom he openly clashed on the issue of an amnesty earlier this year.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, the Conservative mayor said that allowing long-term illegal immigrants to earn the right to stay in Britain would see "hugely increased" tax revenues.

Of the 700,000 thought to be working illegally in the UK, about 400,000 are in London.

"What I want to do is to commission a study by my own economics team here at the Greater London Authority into the possibility," he said.

"We want to look in detail at what the economic impact of such an earned amnesty system would be."

He acknowledged that illegal immigrants had broken the law and should "in principle" be deported.

But he added: "Unfortunately it is just not going to happen."

Mr Woolas said: "I think this is naive of the Mayor. His comments might start with the best of intentions but will lead to more people traffickers making more money and exploiting more vulnerable individuals.

"The UK Border Agency is committed to stopping illegal migration. We are putting in place the biggest shake up of the immigration system for 45 years and we are seeing the results of this. We are putting more resources into expelling foreign law breakers and last year we removed one person every eight minutes."

Mr Johnson insisted that he did not want to incentivise illegal immigration but said there were significant legal and financial obstacles to mass deportations.

He suggested that those allowed to stay would have to be at least five years resident and able to demonstrate their commitment "to this society and to this economy".

He went on: "There's got to be a very substantial period in which they have been in this country.

"I think that we could have other hoops that they might have to go through in order to be able to quality for an earned amnesty scheme.

"For instance, it might be necessary to have a clean criminal record.

"It might be important that they should go through various citizenship tests, the kind we already have.

"And there might be some sort of financial obligations that they have to meet as well."

Mr Johnson raised the issue of an amnesty during his campaign for City Hall in April.

Mr Cameron was quick to express his disagreement, saying: "The problem with amnesties is that they just store up another for the future, as people expect another one."

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationwatchUK, said the proposal was "unbelievably irresponsible".

"An amnesty would cost the taxpayer at least £500 million a year," he said.

"It would add hundreds of thousands to the housing lists who would move up the priority list as their families would be allowed to follow them.

"So the reward for breaking our laws for long enough would be a meal ticket for life.

"This could only encourage still more illegal immigrants to come and take their place as the Spanish have found with their six amnesties in the past 20 years, each larger than the previous one."