- The Guardian, Wednesday October 3 2007
Mr Davis promised an annual limit on the number of economic migrants, without spelling out what that would be. The figure would be based around the government's new points system but enforced more rigorously, he said. Around 600,000 migrants a year, split roughly evenly between EU and non-EU countries, come into Britain, leaving net immigration at about 200,000. "Labour has systematically failed to think through the consequences of an open-door Britain," Mr Davis said. "Unchecked immigration is not inevitable, it's not the irresistible result of globalisation. It's what happens when you have a failed policy."
The broad thrust of the party's immigration policy has been known for almost a year but this is the first time Mr Davis has committed the Tories to making big cuts in the numbers entering the country. "We want to have a civilised, fair and effective immigration policy - at the moment we've got an out-of-control immigration policy," Mr Davis told the Guardian.
The shadow home secretary confirmed plans for a dedicated border police force to reduce the estimated 570,000 illegal immigrants in the UK, based on a report by former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Stevens, who also advises the prime minister on security. Mr Davis said Gordon Brown's proposed border service did not include the police. "His new border force is the same people with the same powers. The only real change? A nice new uniform. This is 'New' New Labour: soundbite by Brown, policy by Prada."
In the same hall where Mr Davis had given a lacklustre speech two years ago which fatally damaged his leadership ambitions, he was given a polite reception. But the faithful welcomed his comments on immigration in what will be seen as part of a return to core Tory values. Both Mr Davis and David Cameron reject the charge of a lurch to the right.
Yesterday the two men also revealed plans to spend £162.6m of the savings from scrapping ID cards on ending the government's early release scheme. Mr Cameron said the scheme, releasing 25,000 prisoners early this year, was an insult to crime victims. Briefing papers released by the Tories last night say that they would need £60m to build new prison capacity and £102m for the three-year running costs of providing the places.
Labour believes the Tories are overestimating savings from ID cards and underestimating the cost of prison places.
Mr Davis promised to launch a big abstinence-based drugs rehabilitation programme, recommended by former leader Iain Duncan Smith's report on social breakdown in Britain. Mr Duncan Smith told the conference that Mr Brown was in denial about the state of Britain's broken society.
The shadow security minister, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, told delegates that Britain had to do more to inculcate national values into its own children. "We have let things drift for too long. We, as a society, need to defend and explain our values: that we are a liberal democracy, all our citizens are equal under a single secular law," she said.
