Immigration 'must be slashed' to keep population below 70m

Net immigration in to the UK has to be slashed by 80 per cent if the Government wants to keep the population below 70 million, the official statistician has warned

The balance of those settling here over those leaving must be cut to just 50,000 a year if the population is not to pass the landmark total.
But that would require an enormous reduction from the current net level of 237,000 a year and makes a mockery of immigration minister Phil Woolas' pledge to keep numbers under control.
Karen Dunnell, the National Statistician, has revealed for the first time the dramatic changes required to keep population growth in check.
It comes as the Home Office will today announce it is keeping restrictions in place for at least another year on low-skilled workers from Romania and Bulgaria.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said "This is a stunning admission which we have had to wring out of the statisticians.
"The Government claims that they can hold the population of the UK under 70 million by means of their new points based system is blown completely out of the water.
Mr Woolas vowed in October that the Government would not let the population go above 70 million but on current projections it will pass that within two decades.
But in a letter to MPs, Ms Dunnell said, assuming fertility and mortality projections remain the same, annual net migration would have to drop to 50,000 if the population is to stay below that level by 2081.
But she added: "In practice, this may not be a realistic scenario."
Current long term projections have net migration at 190,000 a year, which would see numbers pass 70 million by 2028.
But even that could be an overestimate as net migration last year stood at 237,000 - the second highest level on record.
Labour MP Frank Field, co-chairmen of the Cross Party Group for Balanced Migration, said: "This shows the huge scale of the task required to get our population back under control. These figures show that Ministers have yet to start taking decisive action".
Mr Woolas, said: "We have made it clear that the points based system will allow us to manage immigration which in turn will help contribute to future population projections and control.
"The points system means only those with the skills Britain needs can come – and no more. If the new rules had been in place last year there would have been 12 per cent fewer people coming in through the equivalent route."