Blair's secret scheme to make immigration more popular
Labour ministers came up with the 'marketing' strategy to overcome what they described as 'disproportionate' concerns about the issue and to communicate the 'big picture' to the public instead.
The plan, which aimed to steer public opinion towards a 'more sensible conversation on immigration', included details of Home Office -commissioned research which found that many Britons believed borders were 'open and overrun' .
In a handwritten note, Sir Tony described research he had been reading on immigration as 'pretty grim but utterly believable'.
The then prime minister was sent the 15-page strategy document in March 2004 by Lord Blunkett, the then home secretary, who shared it in 'strict confidence' and warned: 'You will see that this research, and the references to it in the paper, could be explosive in the wrong hands.'
The paper, titled 'Having a sensible conversation about migration', claimed that the then government had made 'real progress' in reducing the impact of stories about asylum seekers, so that they were 'no longer automatic front-page tabloid material every time'.
However, it then detailed public research which 'confirms that immigration is an issue of real concern to people' and noted there were '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'.
It is not clear if the scheme was ever enacted.
However, the paper came weeks before Sir Tony opened Britain's borders to thousands of Eastern European migrants. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the EU in 2004.
The decision by the then government to allow immediate unrestricted access to migrants from those countries was widely seen as having contributed to a major increase in immigration in the years that followed, with net EU migration surging to more than 200,000 a year.
'Public is looking for scapegoats'
Summing up the views of the public, the strategy document said: 'People feel they do not have permission to freely express their fears'.
It added: 'In a world of rapid change and uncertainty, people are fearful and look for explanations and scapegoats,' while claiming that 'a disproportionate amount of fear and uncertainty' was 'channelled towards' migration.
Discussing the communications challenges in getting across a pro-migration message, the paper included a textbook-style graphic of a human eye looking towards a circle with the words 'bogus', 'scroungers' and 'out of control', which blocked out another larger circle labelled the 'big picture'.
The paper said the 'big picture' was being crowded out by 'an almost cliched perception of all immigrants being 'bogus' and 'scroungers'.'
'The challenge is finding new ways to package and communicate these issues in a way that circumvents the eclipse and makes it easier for people to see the big picture,' it added.
'More sensible conversation needed'
The strategy document recommended a new approach to improve the public's 'understanding' of migration and 'correct public misconceptions about the scale, nature and potential benefits of managed migration' and 'open the way for a more sensible conversation on immigration'.
'Shifting public attitudes on immigration is a huge challenge', it added. 'It requires a radically different communication approach. Media fire-fighting, whilst important, will not be sufficient – there are too many fires to put out and editorial and public opinion are too entrenched.
'In effect, many parts of the media are party to generating and sustaining the eclipse. The more they are fed with immigration stories, the bigger the eclipse becomes and the more the big picture is obscured.'
The then government planned a campaign to show action was being taken to tackle the issue and to 'broaden the migration conversation and explain why managed migration is important to us as a nation.'
It hoped to 'reduce the impact of the media-driven 'eclipse' by ensuring that the action that the government is taking is seen as a concerted and cohesive programme, and that this package of measures is communicated to the public with impact.'
The paper detailed a table showing plans to advertise the advantages of migration and a PR campaign to demonstrate that migrants made a positive contribution to society.
The files relating to the strategy have only been released up to March 2004, before its planned launch in July that year.
In an annex on the findings of polling and focus group research, the paper revealed that participants were 'overwhelmingly of the view that the UK does not have an effective immigration policy' and that they 'feel that our traditional tolerance has been exploited and become a major weakness'.
It said: 'They have a sense that our borders are completely open and overrun.
'Both focus groups and polling suggest that these intolerant views can be held by people who really do value our multicultural society and are genuinely proud of our tolerant heritage. But they feel that the 'uncontrolled flood' of immigrants is undermining these noble aspirations.
'Strongly held negative impressions are more the result of anger that things have 'got to this state' rather than outright racism. There is real resentment of political correctness – which is considered a reason why immigration and race cannot be discussed openly and therefore tackled effectively.'
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