Tories would cut immigration to avoid population of 70m

A Conservative government would curb immigration to stop the population of the United Kingdom reaching the forecast 70 million, David Cameron said yesterday. He said net migration to the UK each year should be limited to ‘tens of thousands’ rather than ‘hundreds of thousands’, adding: ‘I’m in favour of immigration, we’ve benefited from immigration, but I think the pressures, particularly on our public services, have been very great.’ The number of people migrating to the UK minus those emigrating was 237,000 in 2007 and 163,000 in 2008.