By . Jack Doyle . PUBLISHED: . 20:48 EST, 12 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 01:59 EST, 13 August 2013 . Chris Bryant said it was wrong to ditch controls on Polish and other workers in 2004 . Labour made a humiliating climbdown over immigration last night after its spokesman finally admitted opening the floodgates to Eastern European migrants was a mistake. Chris Bryant said it was wrong to ditch controls on Polish and other workers in 2004 – and claimed far more came to Britain ‘than anybody had anticipated’. The admission came in a speech dismissed as a ‘car crash’ before it was even made as Mr Bryant launched a U-turn on planned attacks on Next and Tesco over their use of foreign workers. Critics pointed out the stark contrast with comments he made a year before the 2004 influx, when he called dire warnings about unrestricted migration ‘huff and puff’. In a further blunder, he accused British workers of being ‘physically less mobile’ than other EU nationals in their search for jobs. It adds up to a disaster for Labour on an issue likely to be critical at the next election, in a summer in which it is widely seen as having lost ground to the Government. Tory MPs condemned Mr Bryant’s ‘short-sighted intervention’, calling him ‘badly confused’. Tory MP James Clappison, a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: ‘This is breathtaking hypocrisy, because of Labour’s multiple failures in failing to impose transitional controls and the huge increase in the number of work permits made available to workers from outside the EU. ‘Labour hasn’t got a leg to stand on.’ Mr Bryant’s embarrassing retreat followed a clumsy briefing to a Sunday newspaper, which reported he would attack Tesco and Next for ‘seeming to deliberately exclude British people’ from jobs and hiring foreign workers at lower wages. In an attack on ‘unscrupulous employers whose only interest seems to be finding labour as cheaply as possible’ he would accuse the supermarket of drafting in cheap foreign staff when it moved distribution centres, and claim Next hired Polish people to avoid agency workers’ regulations, it said. After a briefing to a Sunday newspaper, it reported Bryant would attack Tesco and Next for 'seeming to deliberately exclude British people' from jobs . But key passages were cut from the speech after a furious response from the two British firms, prompting Tory vice chairman Michael Fabricant to accuse Mr Bryant of ‘so much backtracking you needed five reverse gears’. By yesterday morning, when he appeared on the BBC’s Today programme, Mr Bryant was reduced to saying: ‘I fully accept that Next and Tesco often go the extra mile to try and recruit local workers.’ He made clear he did not consider them ‘unscrupulous’ – and it was pointed out that a Tesco distribution centre he mentioned ‘in Kent’ was in Dagenham, East London. He said he accepted that ‘Labour made mistakes when we were in government on migration’, adding: ‘When the new A8 countries joined the EU in 2004 it was right they should join the EU. But France, Italy and Germany sensibly said they would have transitional controls for seven years. We didn’t do that. A larger number of people came to the UK than anybody had anticipated.’ However, in June 2003, as commentators warned of the risks of opening Britain’s borders without transitional controls on labour movement, Mr Bryant said in the Commons newspapers were guilty of ‘huff and puff’. Last night Paul Uppal, Tory MP for Wolverhampton South West, said: ‘Chris Bryant now calls transitional controls sensible, but doesn’t apologise for failing to introduce them after levels of migration to the UK exceeded France and Germany. ‘Labour let immigration get out of control, and Chris Bryant’s short sighted intervention today will do nothing to change this.’ Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: ‘Labour have opposed every one of the Government’s policies to bring immigration under control and refuse to say whether they will support our immigration bill. ‘This badly confused speech shows that Labour haven’t changed.’
Chris Bryant says it was wrong to ditch controls on migrant workers in 2004 .
By . Jack Doyle . PUBLISHED: . 20:48 EST, 12 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 01:59 EST, 13 August 2013 . Chris Bryant said it was wrong to ditch controls on Polish and other workers in 2004 . Labour made a humiliating climbdown over immigration last night after its spokesman finally admitted opening the floodgates to Eastern European migrants was a mistake. Chris Bryant said it was wrong to ditch controls on Polish and other workers in 2004 – and claimed far more came to Britain ‘than anybody had anticipated’. The admission came in a speech dismissed as a ‘car crash’ before it was even made as Mr Bryant launched a U-turn on planned attacks on Next and Tesco over their use of foreign workers. Critics pointed out the stark contrast with comments he made a year before the 2004 influx, when he called dire warnings about unrestricted migration ‘huff and puff’. In a further blunder, he accused British workers of being ‘physically less mobile’ than other EU nationals in their search for jobs. It adds up to a disaster for Labour on an issue likely to be critical at the next election, in a summer in which it is widely seen as having lost ground to the Government. Tory MPs condemned Mr Bryant’s ‘short-sighted intervention’, calling him ‘badly confused’. Tory MP James Clappison, a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: ‘This is breathtaking hypocrisy, because of Labour’s multiple failures in failing to impose transitional controls and the huge increase in the number of work permits made available to workers from outside the EU. ‘Labour hasn’t got a leg to stand on.’ Mr Bryant’s embarrassing retreat followed a clumsy briefing to a Sunday newspaper, which reported he would attack Tesco and Next for ‘seeming to deliberately exclude British people’ from jobs and hiring foreign workers at lower wages. In an attack on ‘unscrupulous employers whose only interest seems to be finding labour as cheaply as possible’ he would accuse the supermarket of drafting in cheap foreign staff when it moved distribution centres, and claim Next hired Polish people to avoid agency workers’ regulations, it said. After a briefing to a Sunday newspaper, it reported Bryant would attack Tesco and Next for 'seeming to deliberately exclude British people' from jobs . But key passages were cut from the speech after a furious response from the two British firms, prompting Tory vice chairman Michael Fabricant to accuse Mr Bryant of ‘so much backtracking you needed five reverse gears’. By yesterday morning, when he appeared on the BBC’s Today programme, Mr Bryant was reduced to saying: ‘I fully accept that Next and Tesco often go the extra mile to try and recruit local workers.’ He made clear he did not consider them ‘unscrupulous’ – and it was pointed out that a Tesco distribution centre he mentioned ‘in Kent’ was in Dagenham, East London. He said he accepted that ‘Labour made mistakes when we were in government on migration’, adding: ‘When the new A8 countries joined the EU in 2004 it was right they should join the EU. But France, Italy and Germany sensibly said they would have transitional controls for seven years. We didn’t do that. A larger number of people came to the UK than anybody had anticipated.’ However, in June 2003, as commentators warned of the risks of opening Britain’s borders without transitional controls on labour movement, Mr Bryant said in the Commons newspapers were guilty of ‘huff and puff’. Last night Paul Uppal, Tory MP for Wolverhampton South West, said: ‘Chris Bryant now calls transitional controls sensible, but doesn’t apologise for failing to introduce them after levels of migration to the UK exceeded France and Germany. ‘Labour let immigration get out of control, and Chris Bryant’s short sighted intervention today will do nothing to change this.’ Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: ‘Labour have opposed every one of the Government’s policies to bring immigration under control and refuse to say whether they will support our immigration bill. ‘This badly confused speech shows that Labour haven’t changed.’
controls on Polish and other workers in 2004 . Bryant said it was wrong to ditch controls on