A British official apologized for understating the number of foreign workers in the country by 300,000 amid rising tension over foreigners taking British jobs.

Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain also admitted a claim that Britons had taken 2 million of the extra 2.7 million jobs created since Britain's Labor Party had come to power could not be supported by statistics.

Hain said in a letter to Parliament that the errors had been made in good faith.

The secretary of Britain's largest government department testified before Parliament Oct. 8 the number of foreign nationals working in Britain had grown by 800,000 in 10 years.

But a "revised analysis shows that there are an extra 1.1 million foreign nationals in employment in the U.K. since 1997,” Hain said in his apology letter.

Tory leader David Cameron told Britain's Sky News a Tory government would reduce immigration and create a border police force with powers to track down and remove illegal immigrants.

The government would also limit the right of nationals of new European Union states to work in Britain, Cameron said.

Britain said Tuesday restrictions on low-skilled Romanians and Bulgarians who want to work in Britain would remain in place until "at least the end of 2008." 
 // Copyright 2007 by United Press International


Publication date: 31 October 2007   

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