Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain has apologised after ministers admitted that 300,000 more immigrants were working in the UK than first thought.
New figures show that the number of foreign nationals employed in the UK since 1997 is 1.1m, not the 800,000 officially recorded.
Mr Hain has written to his Tory shadow Chris Grayling to admit that incorrect figures were given in Commons answers.
Mr Grayling said the admission was “an extraordinary development”.
It comes just hours before the government is expected to extend controls on the number of Romanian and Bulgarian workers coming to the UK.
The extra 300,000 was found after analysis of the Labour Force Survey, which is compiled by the Office for National Statistics, showed 8% of the UK’s 29.1m workforce was foreign.The new figures relate to new jobs that have been created over the last 10 years.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) stressed that ministers had used the earlier 800,000 estimate “in good faith”.
In his letter to Mr Grayling, Mr Hain said: “It was stated that the increase in the number of foreign nationals in employment since 1997 was 0.8 million.
“Following careful analysis of the information in the Labour Force Survey, this figure has been revised upwards by 0.3 million.
“This revised analysis shows that there are, in total, an extra 1.1 million foreign nationals in employment in the UK since 1997.
“I apologise for having to make this revision,” Mr Hain said, stressing that the new figure was the most “robust estimate available”.
He said the change would affect previous government responses on how many of the 2.7m jobs created since Labour came to power in 1997 have gone to British workers.
“I previously stated that two million of these jobs have gone to British workers,” he said.
“However, we have subsequently discovered that it is not technically accurate to make this comparison.”
FROM Reader A.L.: And so one of the first threads in the sweater are pulled. Soon a lot more will start to unravel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7068291.stm