The one topic above all others that my constituents raise with me is immigration. This, despite the fact that Birkenhead is far less affected by the arrival of newcomers than many other areas of the country.
In response to this legitimate lobbying from Birkenhead voters I established a cross party group calling for balanced migration. The British economy benefits from some workers coming here but our group is gravely concerned about the scale of current immigration.
When MPs wanted to improve their standing with the public the Common’s authorities hit on the idea of allowing rank and file voters to choose topics MPs would debate. Recently we put online a petition that Parliament should debate immigration.
The response was extraordinary. Before the first seven days were up over 100,000 voters had registered a request for an immigration debate.
I appeared earlier this week before the group of fellow back benchers who decide which topics will be debated. I made a plea. We should have a full day’s debate on how we prevent our population from being grown primarily by immigration.
A Labour member of the committee, significantly, made the comment that she thought her colleagues should be mindful to grant this debate even without the runaway success of the e-petition. But the e-petition is increasing the pressure.
It is not too late for more Birkonions to make their views known. The site where you can register your opinion for this vote is
here.
The selection committee is expecting the numbers to continue to soar. Please do not let them down.