Minister denies limit on migrants from outside EU

Phil Woolas, the new Immigration minister, promised yesterday that there will be fewer migrants coming to Britain in future. He seemed shaken by the reaction to an interview he gave at the weekend, in which he appeared to say he would cap the number of immigrants from outside the EU. His comments led to Labour MPs warning him against "pandering to right-wing extremism".

Non-EU citizens who were permitted to come and work in the UK should not have an automatic right to become citizens, he said. But he denied that he was proposing to cap their number, a policy that the Conservatives have been advocating for years.

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Mr Woolas told BBC 1's Politics Show: "It's very difficult to say, even if you're in favour of a cap, what it should be. But what we can do is look at the period of time and a work permit, of course, limits the period of time that a person could come to this country to work.

"Had we introduced it [the points-based system] a year ago there would be 12 per cent fewer migratory workers in this country than there are at the moment." Mr Woolas said he found criticism "deeply hurtful", and said that his intention was to tackle racial discrimination rather than encourage it.

"We are cruel in many ways to the immigrants who come to our country," he said. "We need to be tougher on migration but perhaps kinder on the way in which we help people to get involved in society once they're here."

The shadow Home Secretary, Dominic Grieve, said: "The Minister has admitted that behind his words there is no action. We will introduce an annual limit on non-EU immigration, transitional controls on immigration from new member states, and establish a dedicated UK border police force."