Gordon Brown leads Labour charge to win over wavering voters as campaign to keep Britain in the EU falters
His was heckled when he insisted Britain has “managed immigration not uncontrolled immigration”
GORDON Brown is leading the charge to win over wavering voters as Labour’s big guns come out to try and shore up faltering campaign to keep Britain in the EU.
The party’s supporters are being urged to back Remain by the former Prime Minister, who robustly defended his record on immigration - one of the major issues with just 9 days to go until the referendum.
However his attempt to relaunch the Remain campaign backfired when he insisted Britain has “managed immigration not uncontrolled immigration”.
But figures show 333,000 more people are settling in the UK than leaving each year, with 184,000 of them from the EU.
Mr Brown acknowledged some areas felt under pressure as a result of immigration, but blamed the Government for failing to offer support rather than the EU's free movement rules.
On BBC Radio 4's Today programme he said: "I believe that in Britain we have managed migration. It's not uncontrolled migration."
He highlighted the "doctors in our hospitals, the nurses in our health services" who had come from overseas.
"There are skilled people coming in to this country who companies are desperate to employ and, of course, we have a system of managed migration rather similar to the Australian system for people who are non-EU migrants,” he added.
"You have got to get this into perspective. There are benefits to the country, but of course, where there are pressures we have got do something.
"My complaint is that the Government should be doing something about the communities who feel that the pressures on them - on the health service and policing - are intense.
"And they should be doing more and have to do more about illegal immigration."
Pro-EU leaders are concerned a potentially pivotal voting bloc are being pushed towards Brexit by the campaign's focus on Tory rivalries, along with Jeremy Corbyn's lacklustre involvement.
The ex-PM insisted the party was united on the issue, saying: "Labour voters don't like the status quo, they want to know if they are going to be better off.
"We can show - and the European leaders I talk to want this to happen - that Britain can lead in Europe.
"And that's exactly the message that Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell - I was talking to him yesterday about this - Tom Watson the deputy leader, Peter Mandelson on the other side of the party, are all putting together.
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"I think it shows that when all the forces of Labour get together it's a very powerful voice in the country."
When The Sun challenged him on his BBC bias claim yesterday Mr Brown lashed out, saying: “I should have said that The Sun had an agenda.”
He was heckled by other reporters for dodging the question and tried to shift the topic on to illegal immigration, which makes up a tiny proportion of the current influx of migrants.
Senior backbench MP John Mann said: “Gordon Brown is wrong. His argument fails to grasp what the concern is amongst working class people.
“They are seeing all this change at the same time as they are getting lumbered with zero-hours contracts and agency work.”
Former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls last night broke ranks by insisting Britain demand tougher controls on migration.
He said he was backing Remain but that did not mean he was voting for the status quo.
And he said: “We need to press Europe to restore proper borders and put new controls on economic migration.”
Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn is also making the "patriotic" case for a Remain vote - arguing Britain's modern strength has been drawn from its work as a leader within international alliances - in a sign of Labour's increased effort in the referendum campaign.
Mr Brown’s involvement will draw comparisons with his late intervention in the Scottish independence referendum, considered an influential factor by some observers.
The pro-Remain camp will hope his argument that reforms to digital, energy and service sectors could create an estimated 500,000 new jobs in Britain over 10 years will have the same effect.
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