Ben Harris-Quinney made the remarks in response to the release of the latest official statistics revealing that more than 1 million foreign nationals were offered visas to live, study, and work in the UK last year, up from the pre-pandemic high of more than 740,000 and the highest figure on record. This came after Leave campaigners like the current Prime Minister Boris Johnson had pledged to ‘take back control’ of immigration after Brexit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Harris-Quinney told Ian Collins on Talk TV: “The concern of the British public for the last two decades has been on the sheer scale of immigration. For quite a long time, roughly one million people a year have been entering this country. 82 per cent of our population growth is down to immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, because our population is growing quickly, it creates a demand for jobs that wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for immigration. So the argument that is used – we need immigration to fill jobs – ignores the fact that immigration is causing most of our population growth, and therefore that demand.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n