MORE than three quarters British people believe that immigration should be cut back, according to a new poll.
A survey on social attitudes by NatCen Social Research found that 77 per cent of the public across all ages and incomes want to see immigration reduced, while 56 per cent want to see immigration fall by “a lot”.
The figures will increase pressure on politicians in Britain to take a stronger line on the immigration issue and come just after the lifting on January 1 of restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians working in Britain.
Forty per cent of those polled with educational qualifications said immigration should be cut or held at current levels.
When those with no qualifications or with school qualifications were surveyed that number swelled to 85 per cent.
UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage yesterday demanded that immigrants be barred from getting benefits for five years, while Mayor of London Boris Johnson wants a two-year ban.
Both actions would be illegal under European law.
The UKIP leader added that said he would rather more restrictive immigration over higher economic growth.
He said: “I would rather we weren’t slightly richer and I would rather we had communities that felt more united and I would rather have a situation where young unemployed British people had a realistic chance of getting a job.”
Mr Johnson chose to focus on the payment of child benefits said: “Why should British taxpayers be paying the child benefit of people who may be working in Britain but whose children are living in Poland?”
The comment threw criticism from Polish ambassador to Britain Witold Sobków, who said: “There is no need to single out, to stigmatise Poles” who come to Britain “to work hard, not to abuse the system or grab the benefits.
“Let us not talk about numbers and nationalities; let us concentrate on solving the problems together, on assimilation and integration, on preventing uneasiness in neighbourhoods where there is a significant increase in population, on showing the benefits for the UK.”
