Theresa May under fire for refugees speech

Home Secretary Theresa May has faced an angry backlash after telling Conservative Party conference high levels of immigration brought next to no economic benefit.

Refugees, she said, should not be "conflated" with economic migrants.

“When immigration is too high, when the pace of change is too fast, it's impossible to build a cohesive society. It's difficult for schools and hospitals and core infrastructure like housing and transport to cope," she told delegates.

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Business leaders and charities branded the speech “irresponsible” and “dangerous”.

Simon Walker, Director General of the Institute of Directors said he was “astonished” at the rhetoric.

“The myth of the job-stealing immigrant is nonsense. Immigrants do not steal jobs, they help fill vital skill shortages and, in doing so, create demand and more jobs,” he said.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale called the speech “contemptuous, cynical and clumsy” for playing to the “lowest common denominator”.

“The Home Secretary should be more careful than to give a speech that borders on intolerance of immigrants and flies in the face of significant evidence of the benefit they provide to our economy,” she said.

Scotland’s Europe Minister Humza Yousaf said: “Migrants from the EU alone have contributed more than £20 billion to the UK economy since 2001.

“Ms May’s speech was divisive, misleading and likely to inflame tensions between migrant and non-migrant communities, posing a risk to community cohesion. This is unhelpful, particularly when we have a major humanitarian refugee crisis on our doorstep.”

Net migration into the UK is at its highest level, with 330,000 thought to have entered the country in the year to March.