Title: Frank Field: Labour and Tories will be 'broken up' by immigration
Headings: Frank Field: Labour and Tories will be 'broken up' by immigration
Frank Field: Labour and Tories will be 'broken up' by immigration
Content: Frank Field, a former welfare minister, suggested that increasing numbers of MPs will reject their own parties’ policies on immigration and run for election making their own independent pledges of much tougher action. Mr Field, an MP since 1979 and one of the most widely-respected members of the Commons, said neither Ed Miliband, his own leader, nor David Cameron, has done enough to answer public anger about mass immigration. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he also praised the UK Independence Party for “breaking the power of political correctness” over the issue of immigration. Rejecting Labour’s liberal approach to immigration under the last government, Mr Field has been a longstanding campaigner for much more restrictive entry rules. Mr Field also has close ties with some Conservatives, running an immigration campaign with Sir Nicholas Soames, a senior Conservative MP. He was also a friend of Baroness Thatcher. Criticising the leaderships of both parties for ignoring voters’ concerns over immigration, Mr Field suggested that both the main parties could now effectively be destroyed by splits over how to respond. He likened the situation to the one that faced the Tories in the mid 19th Century when Sir Robert Peel scrapped the Corn Laws protecting British farmers from imported grain. The subsequent backlash split the Tories into two factions, one of which later merged with the Whigs to form the Liberals. “Immigration has the power that the Corn Laws did, to break up parties,” Mr Field said.