Mass Immigration Causing Crisis In Britain’s Primary Schools, Minister Says

Many thousands of parents will miss out on the first choice of primary school for their children due to uncontrolled mass immigration, a government minister has said.

Employment Minister Priti Patel made her comments on the day parents across England and Wales find out where their children will be going to primary school, with councils struggling to find enough places, the Daily Mail reports.

Ms Patel, who supports the UK leaving the European Union (EU), said that immigration is partly to blame for the problem.

“The shortage of primary school places is yet another example of how uncontrolled migration is putting unsustainable pressures on our public services,” she said.

“Education is one of the most important things that government delivers, and it’s deeply regrettable that so many families with young children are set to be disappointed today.

“For as long as we remain a member of the EU, we are completely unable to control the numbers of people coming to this country – and with another five countries in the pipeline to join the EU the problem is set to get even worse.

“We can take back control of our borders. We can also take back control of the £350 million we send to the EU every single week, and reinvest it in our vital and invaluable public services.”

Her comments come as the Labour Party released figures showing one in four primary schools is now either full or over capacity. The statistics also showed that by 2020 there will be an extra 295,000 primary age children in the country, partially due to newly-arrived migrants having children.

This is the second time in the space of a week that Ms Patel, who is the daughter of Ugandan immigrants, has spoken out on immigration.

In a Telegraph interview this weekend, she said it was not racist to worry about the impact of mass immigration.

“I don’t subscribe to this view that it is racist to speak about immigration and I say that as a daughter or immigrants from decades ago,” she said. “Our job is to articulate and represent the concerns of the British public – and we should be doing that whatever our backgrounds are.”

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