Andrew Turner, the Island’s MP yesterday quoted some results of his recent survey of Island residents in during a debate about immigration in Parliament.

Almost 500 Islanders had completed his survey on Tuesday afternoon (498 Island responses) on a range of national issues and Mr Turner took the opportunity to quote some of the results.

Mr Turner said :
“Controlling immigration emerged as the most important national issue for the largest number of respondents, even more than thought the Economy should be in top place. Some people may find that surprising given the low number of immigrants on the Island but I know that people constantly raise with me their experiences on the mainland or how the towns their families live in have changed in recent years due to large numbers of new immigrants. At least 90% of people disagreed with two key Liberal Democrat policies on immigration - that illegal immigrants who have been here a long time should be given citizenship and that asylum seekers should be allowed to work whether they are genuine or not. Another finding was that almost 93% of people felt that politicians should be more honest about immigration and how it affects our country. I have initiated two debates in the past about immigration – but that is still a salutary finding. If mainstream parties fail to be honest about such things it is not surprising that people turn to smaller extremist groups such as the BNP.”

Speaking for the Liberal Democrats Paul Rowan MP responded by clarifying their policy saying that they proposed to give citizenship only to those who had been here illegally for more than 10 years and who not broken the law. He also claimed it would be too expensive to deport them.

Mr Turner said :

That completely ignores the fact that by being here illegally they have already broken our immigration laws and many will have broken other laws in the course of getting here. The fact that the law is expensive to apply doesn’t mean it should be ignored. But the most important issue is that even more amnesties would send out a clear signal to the rest of the world that if you manage to get here and stay long you can become a citizen. I think that is wrong.

Speaking more generally about the survey the Island’s MP said :

“I found the exercise very interesting and it is a good way of finding out the views of my constituents. This survey can still be completed on my website www.islandmp.org – however there are strict rules on what questions I can ask. I am currently developing a website that is not directly related to my work as an MP and will give me much greater freedom to ask people about local issues. I hope to get that up and running soon.”

END Contact : Andrew Turner’s office 01983 530808