Blair warned to keep 'out of control' immigration focus group report secret, amid concern public's views would be 'explosive' in the wrong hands, new documents reveal
The Prime Minister was warned by his Home Secretary in 2004 that the findings 'could be explosive in the wrong hands'.
The top-secret focus group report unequivocally condemned the Government's record on immigration and asylum, files released to the National Archives in London reveal.
The Home Office study of 27 panels from a mix of ethnic backgrounds, ages and geographic locations across the country in 2004 found the public considered immigration to be 'out of control'.
Mr Blunkett, Home Secretary from 2001 until 2004, told Mr Blair: 'The consensus remains among the British public - particularly those reading national newspapers - that immigration and asylum are "out of control".'
He added: 'You will see that this research, and the references to it in the paper, could be explosive in the wrong hands,' he wrote.
The concern was despite Labour making progress reducing arrivals to the UK.
Mr Blair sought to put pressure on France for their failure to stop uncharted migrants entering the UK via the Channel, the documents reveal.
In the focus group, the March 2004 report authors acknowledge the research 'confirms that immigration is an issue of real concern to people'.
It adds: 'There are no obvious signs of a breakthrough as a result of what has been achieved so far, and little recognition or credit for what the government has done on asylum.'
Yet only a month earlier, Mr Blair was positively relieved that efforts to tackle immigration appeared to be working.
The weekly asylum report for February 20 showed the UK had removed just over 300 asylum seekers, an improvement on previous weeks, with noted decreases in the number of Chinese and Somalian applicants - the two most common nationalities seeking asylum.
'This seems to be falling into place at long last,' Mr Blair wrote.
However, the findings of the Home Office-backed study showed Labour's efforts to curb immigration were not being recognised on the doorstep.
Net international migration to the UK in the year 2003/4 was 167,000 people, up from around 153,000 the previous year.
'Participants were overwhelmingly of the view that the UK does not have an effective immigration policy,' the report found.
'They feel that our traditional tolerance has been exploited and become a major weakness. They have a sense that our borders are completely open and overrun.
'Immigrants are perceived to benefit from positive discrimination and access to services such as education, housing and healthcare at the expense of the indigenous population who have 'paid their dues'.'
The report also concluded that the public 'generally discarded' the potential positive contributions of migration, with many associating newcomers with 'scrounging' on benefits, or illegal activity.
It added: 'These attitudes are held fairly consistently across all ethnic groups and all age groups.
'There were liberal dissenters in some groups - but these were firmly in the minority.
'Strongly-held negative impressions are more the result of anger that things have 'got to this state' rather than outright racism.
'There is a real resentment of political correctness - which is considered a reason why immigration and race cannot be discussed openly and therefore tackled effectively.'
Mr Blunkett suggested that the press were 'moving the goalposts' to reinforce the idea that the asylum system was 'unmanaged and uncontrolled', with particular emphasis about the abuse of public services such as schools and hospitals.
The files also reveal how the UK Government attempted to put pressure on Paris - including Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the future French President - to ramp up security on the other side of the Channel.
Mr Blunkett is said to have raised this with Mr Sarkozy 'a number of times', but that the Elysee Palace's Finance Ministry refused to adequately resource so-called juxtaposed controls - where French officials are placed in the UK to check for illegal immigrants, and visa-versa.
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