article_snippet: Mr Blair has insisted Mr Blair was right to let hundreds of thousands of Eastern European migrants move to Britain.
article_snippet: Mr Blair has insisted Mr Blair was right to let hundreds of thousands of Eastern European migrants move to Britain .
article_snippet: Britain was almost alone in the EU in not imposing transitional controls to slow the rate of migration.
article_snippet: The decision to allow freedom of movement into Britain sparked a mass wage of migration - with around 170,000 eastern European migrants moving to the UK every year.
article_snippet: Mr Blair said migrants would have come sooner or later even if transitional controls had been imposed.
article_snippet: In 2004 the economy was booming and we had a requirement for skilled workers from abroad. '
article_snippet: Supposing you put all those people from Eastern Europe back out of Britain again
article_snippet: So if we want to keep all those people out of the country letwe want to keep all those people out of the country look at what we want to keep all those people out of the country impact has actually been on the country and let's look at why the idea in the European Union that people are able to move freely across frontiers is a good idea. '
highlights_snippet: Around 170,000 eastern Europeans moved to UK every year from 2004-2011 .
  
highlights_snippet: Mr Blair insisted the migrants would have come to UK sooner or later .