Immigrants have cost the taxpayer more than £22 million a day since the mid-1990s, totting up a bill of more than £140 billion, according to a new report.
MigrationWatch UK, which campaigns against mass immigration, added that in 2011 the costs were equivalent to £3,000 a day for each of the eight million foreign-born people living in Britain.
It compiled the figures in response to a study published by University College London (UCL) last year which claimed immigrants made a “substantial” contribution to public finances.
The pressure group’s new report said UCL’s conclusions - which were given prominent coverage by the BBC - were “simply wrong”.
In fact, immigration between 1995 and 2011 cost the taxpayer more than £140 billion, or £22 million a day, after balancing what immigrants pay in tax with what they take out of Britain’s coffers by claiming benefits and tax credits, it said. » | David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent | Wednesday, March 12, 2014
