DAILY MAIL: More than a million British passports have been issued to immigrants over the past decade according to new Government figures.
The 1,020,510 total - an average of 102,000 every year - means an immigrant is granted British citizenship every five minutes.
That equates to 12 people being approved for citizenship every hour, the Conservatives said, based on staff working round the clock.
In addition, the number of applications approved in 2006, 154,000, was almost four times higher than in the last full year of Tory rule in 1996.
The research will reignite demands for tougher rules and for citizenship to be a "privilege not a right".
Under current rules, even heinous criminals - including murderers and rapists - can be approved for a passport if they wait for a "clear period" before applying. Another foreigner gets a UK passport every five minutes (more) By James Slack
Mark Alexander
