MP urges debate on limits of immigration

A Conservative MP has warned that high levels of immigration are undermining Britain's quality of life.

In a pamphlet published by the right-wing Cornerstone group of Conservative MPs, Julian Brazier said immigration was a key factor behind problems including high house prices, water shortages and traffic jams.

Tuesday's study notes that in 2004 gross immigration into Britain stood at nearly 600,000, while population density in the UK is amongst the highest in Europe.

Brazier accepts that immigrants "have made a huge contribution to British life, economically as well as socially".

But he argues it is time to debate "wider political considerations" about how population density is an important factor in issues including pressure on land use, water shortages and congestion.

The report also highlights the impact on families of parents having to work longer hours to pay for higher mortgages caused by rising house prices.

"One effect of parents working such long hours is higher rates of family breakdown with knock-on effects for teenage pregnancies and crime," says the MP.

And he says the time has come to halt wide scale immigration into the UK.

"We are a small, overcrowded country and should see the decline in our birth rate, at a time when people are working later in their lives, as an opportunity to alleviate overcrowding," writes Brazier.

"Today's unprecedented influx of migrants may provide short-term economic benefits but, even leaving aside all issues of assimilation, the shear numbers represent a serious problem for our housing, infrastructure and quality of life.

"Britain has a great deal to offer to help make a better world.

"But continuing to provide homes and jobs for further large numbers of incomers on our overcrowded island, is not the best way to help our country or the wider world."