The new immigration proposals are economic and political nonsense | Kenan Malik

The home secretary's plans will be bad both for Britain's finances and for workers' rights

We have become illiberal and lowered quotas at a time when we have an acute shortage of labour." So observed the cabinet minister Richard Crossman in his diaries in 1966, after the Labour government, fearful of public hostility, slashed Commonwealth immigration into Britain.

The conflict between those who see immigration as an economic necessity and those who fear its political consequences has long shaped immigration debate. One consequence has been incoherent policy. That's as true of the home secretary Sajid Javid's white paper on immigration published last week as it was in Crossman's day.

Immigration has become the most potent symbol of a world out of control

The white paper estimates that it will lower GDP by 'between 0.4% and 0.9% ' by 2025