'Labour's new immigration policy will swell numbers of migrants residing in the UK and fail to save money,' says John Redwood

Our government seems unable to crack the gangs they condemn, and relaxed about granting the right to remain to many people who broke the law to come here, despite there being plenty of legal routes for genuine asylum seekers.

The government ended the Rwanda scheme which was beginning to deter some illegal arrivals in the UK but has so far failed to appoint its new Border Commander who they say will arrest the traffickers and puncture the boats.

Far from saving money, the government's policy will swell numbers of illegals securing residence here, increasing welfare and housing bills substantially.

As long ago as 2015, the EU with us as a member said it cost a member state 250,000 euros per migrant in state set up costs to provide housing and early year benefits and public services for a single migrant.

This was before the big inflation in rents and other living costs. So if Labour grants just 40,000 illegal entries that is £10bn of unfunded extra taxpayer cost assuming the cost is still only £250,000 each.

If many of the migrants want to settle in London their accommodation will be very small on such a budget. A new home for every migrant is a costly and big ask.

Swelling the numbers of migrants we welcome is unfair on everyone. The country is short of homes. Rents have risen sharply as migrants and existing residents compete for scarce accommodation.

We are short of NHS capacity everywhere and lack school places in popular areas. Our pipes and sewers cannot cope properly with population numbers already living here, and energy policy now depends on imports to keep us going.

All these issues are made worse by welcoming too many legal migrants on low or no wages and granting an effective amnesty to illegals. It means we make problems for existing residents worse and are unable to offer the new migrants decent accommodation and services.

The costs of all this when we are inviting a million or more migrants in every year is huge, given the high proportion who need taxpayer support for housing and or public services.

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That is one reason why the government says it has to remove the winter fuel payment from most pensioners. It lies behind the search for new ways to tax those who have bothered to save for their retirement, and those who do want to invest, create jobs and build enterprises.

A heady mixture of unfunded pay awards for favoured public sector workers and these huge liabilities to help migrants have knocked a large black hole in the accounts. It looks as if pensioners and savers will be expected to pay the bills.

Bad Treasury thinking said more migrants was good for growth.

They failed to point out growth per head drops if you invite in people to do low-paid work well below the average income. Worse still they failed to tell us just how much of an increase this required in housing and welfare budgets.

As so often the majority of the public who want much stricter controls on numbers were being more prudent than the Treasury.

The public view is also kinder to all of us by recognising there have to be sensible limits to preserve a decent quality of life for all.