ROMSEY, England, April 15 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron promised Thursday to cut immigration to the level of 20 or 30 years ago.
Cameron said the country needs immigrants in the "tens of thousands, rather than hundreds of thousands," The Independent reported. He gave his speech in Romsey, a small mostly white market town in Hampshire known for its Norman abbey, a choice his aides could not explain.
The speech caused a rift in the governing coalition. Business Secretary Vincent Cable, a Liberal Democrat, said the Conservative prime minister's speech was "unwise."
Other Liberal Democrats were harsher in anonymous statements. One told the Independent that Cameron is "playing with fire."
Cameron said Britain needs "good immigration, not mass immigration." He blamed some immigrants for not learning English, and said some neighborhoods have a feeling of "disjointedness" because new arrivals do not try to blend in.
British workers have been going on the dole because low-wage immigrants have taken their jobs, Cameron said.
Cameron said net migration from the European Union was only 27,000 in 2009-2010, while 198,000 people arrived from elsewhere, suggesting immigration could be cut without violating EU policy. But the national statistics agency said he had his numbers wrong, the newspaper said.
