Cameron must use the debates to hammer Labour on immigration

On the day that Gordon Brown raised the immigration issue (and got reprimanded by the Statistics Chief) I've written for The Guardian about David Cameron deploying the immigration issue during the debates:

"Cameron's great opportunity to address the immigration question – and to put a lid on the BNP – will come in the election debates. The issue that opinion polls say is voters' second most important issue is bound to play a prominent part in the three televised encounters between Brown, Cameron and Clegg. The Conservative leader will have an opportunity to repeat his promise to cut net immigration from today's levels of about 200,000 every year to the tens of thousands. A Tory government will do this in a variety of ways but a cap on immigration from outside the EU and an overhaul of the heavily abused student visa system will do the heavy lifting. I hope Cameron doesn't hold back in attacking Labour's record on immigration. It is the poorest communities who have been hurt most by the failure to police Britain's borders."

The full piece is in The Guardian.

Tim Montgomerie