ANGRY MOB

Leo McKinstry today makes the following assertions:

The great myth of the pro-immigration lobby is to pretend that newcomers have been the engine of economic prosperity. True, many have made a wonderful contribution to this country.

But the fact is that any economic gains have been outweighed by the colossal costs to the public sector in housing, education, healthcare and social security. As a host of authoritative studies shows, migrants are more likely to be in receipt of benefits than the British-born population.

It is one of the reasons why our public finances have sunk into massive deficits during a period of unprecedented immigration...

He provides no evidence for any of these assertions. No link or naming of his 'authorative studies', no reports demonstrating that migrants take more from the state than they pay in taxes. No evidence, just lazy racist stereotyping ready to be lapped up by other lazy racists. Expect the BNP to be using this article as yet more 'evidence' of the terrible 'truth' about immigration.

A cursory Google search leads you to evidence that suggests the reason Leo McKinstry hasn't provided any evidence (apart from the obvious excuse that as a tabloid hack, he simply never has to) is because he is just making it up. For example, Camden council's immigrant myths and fact section contains the following:

Migrants contribute 10 per cent more in taxes than they consume in benefits and public services. Migrants contributed £2.5 billion more to the state than they received in benefits and state services, according to the Home Office’s own figures.

Quite how this net contribution has helped 'sink' the public finances is beyond me.

Leo McKinstry will in all likelihood never read this blog post. But if he does, I challenge him to provide any credible evidence to back up his claims.

That such an utterly baseless, untrue article can be published solely to incite racial hatred, intolerance and the rise of fascism in the UK says everyone you need to know about the effectiveness of the Press Complaints Commission.

That immigration has become one of the key battlegrounds over which the election is being fought should be to the eternal shame of the tabloid media. But we all know, they have no shame.