MP vows to get tough on immigration

NEW role for MP Phil Woolas

AN OLDHAM MP today starts the first day in his new role as immigration minister vowing to strengthen immigration policy.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas was handed the top job at the weekend as part of Gordon Brown’s reshuffle.

He moves from the Department for Environment, where he was Climate change minister and takes on the demanding role he believes is the second biggest issue facing the country.

Mr Woolas said: “People want reassurance that immigration is fair, tough and legal.

“There is no doubt that the ethnic minorities hold this view most strongly, a fact ignored in the political debate.

“I am very aware that it is a difficult and some would say an impossible job and I am flattered the Prime Minister has asked me to do it and pleased that he has done so aware and supportive of my views.

“On a lighter note, I took the call from Gordon Brown in the car park of Milnrow Cricket Club on Friday evening and was to say the least, humbled.”

The Oldham MP takes on the role as the Government introduces the Australian-style points system, aimed at getting highly-skilled migrants into the country but keeping out non-EU nationals with lower skills.

He added: “On a common sense level there has to be a limit to the population. You have to have a policy that thinks about the population implication as well as the immigration implications.

“On the one hand is the rationale that we have got to strengthen our economy. But we have got to provide reassurance to communities that the numbers coming in are not bad for us.”

Mr Woolas previously called for a public debate on Muslim women wearing veil in an attempt to break a “vicious cycle” and unite communities.

After the Commons leader Jack Straw sparked controversy for asking constituents if they would not mind removing their veils when visiting him, the Oldham MP wrote in a national newspaper that covering the face can be “frightening and intimidating.”