Immigration has benefited business, says Brown

Gordon Brown insisted today that British business had benefited "very substantially" from immigration over the last decade.

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The Prime Minister accepted it was important to get the balance right given "pressures on the economy".

But he said that gross domestic product per head had risen dramatically since 1997, from £13,900 then to £22,840 in the last year.

"Most people in the City of London know they have benefited very substantially," he told his monthly Downing Street press conference.

"Not just from the inward investment that's coming from international companies, but the number of key workers who are coming to join them and are making a huge contribution to the British economy.

"But we want to get the balance right between that and of course being sensible about the pressures on our economy."

He said the Government had introduced a points system so that there would be no unskilled immigrants from outside the European Union.

It had also set up a citizenship fund requiring immigrants to pay a higher charge for services they use while in the UK.

And the Government had addressed strains on services in certain areas with additional financial support.

He pointed out that a cap of potential immigrants could only be applied to those outside the EU.

"Most people who are proposing a cap are proposing a cap of only 20 per cent of possible migrants into this country," he said.

"And of course many of these people are the highly skilled workers who are important to the economy."