The Sunday Times - Britain
August 22, 2004
Ministers target migration critic-David Leppard
HOME OFFICE ministers ordered independent civil servants to mount a covert
propaganda campaign against a leading critic of government immigration
policy,confidential Whitehall documents have revealed.
The papers, extracted from the government after months of delay, also
reveal how the Home Office successfully agreed with the traditionally
independent Office for National Statistics (ONS) to delay publication of
sensitive migration figures for party political gain.
They further suggest Tony Blair might have misled the public during the
immigration crisis last spring by making statements that were privately
contradicted by officials.
The confidential papers, which include dozens of internal e-mails, were
obtained by Sir Andrew Green, a former British ambassador in Saudi Arabia
and Syria.
He used the government’s access to information code to apply for all Home
Office files on himself and on MigrationWatch UK, a think tank of which he
is founder and chairman.
The documents show how a team of civil servants has been assembled by the
Home Office in a desperate campaign to try to score political points in
the face of factual criticism by MigrationWatch and other critics of
government immigration policy.
E-mails show that the special group was set up in the Home Office to
monitor MigrationWatch’s mailings and conferences. Senior civil servants
met to discuss what they knew about the group and how ministers
could “combat” its policy statements.
“Ministers would like us to be able to respond to, and to be ahead of, some
of the ideas, facts and figures they are promulgating,” says one of the
e-mails. “We need a network to act in the same flexible, fleet-of-foot way
as MigrationWatch.”
The files also show how the ONS approached the Home Office last year for
its “views” on whether it should delay the publication of statistics that
showed that more immigrants were entering the country than ever before.
The Home Office knew publication of the figures — showing net migration had
risen to a record high of 172,000 — would lead to media claims that
immigration was out of control.
Reporting the ONS approach, one Home Office official wrote to another:
“Appreciate you and press office may prefer option two (to delay
publication) not least to avoid renewed attacks from MigrationWatch in the
short term.”
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