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Cable says Cameron immigration comments 'very unwise'

2011-04-14 11:05:08

Airport arrivals The government wants to cut immigration to "tens of thousands" a year

Vince Cable has attacked David Cameron for comments he is due to make about the impact of mass immigration on society, labelling them "very unwise".

In a speech later, Mr Cameron will vow to cut immigration into the UK to "tens of thousands".

But the Lib Dem Business Secretary said his words "risked inflaming extremism" and were not part of the coalition agreement.

He suggested Mr Cameron was electioneering ahead of polls on 5 May.

Defending the government's cap on non-EU migrants, the prime minister will restate his goal of substantially reducing the overall level of net migration - the difference between the number of people coming to live in the UK and those emigrating - from current levels above 200,000.

'British recovery'

He will say policy curbs are already "working" and the government is "on track" to meet its long-term targets.

But Mr Cable criticised the prime minister's choice of language, which he said was "very unwise".

He told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg: "The reference to the tens of thousands of immigrants rather than hundreds of thousands is not part of the coalition agreement, it is Tory party policy only.

"I do understand there is an election coming but talk of mass immigration risks inflaming the extremism to which he and I are both strongly opposed."

Mr Cable has spoken out on several occasions about the economic dangers of a cap on immigration and is seen as having secured some concessions in policy - such as exempting high-earning non-EU workers entering the UK via a process known as intra-company transfers.

"Much of the remaining immigration from outside the European Union is crucial to British recovery and growth," he added.

"That's why the cabinet collectively agreed to support British business and British universities by exempting overseas students and essential staff from the cap on Non-EU immigration."

The BBC's Chief Political Correspondent Laura Kuenssberg said the coalition had brokered an agreement on immigration despite substantial differences over the issue in the past and that these comments risked breaking "that truce".