Latest Channel 4 News:
Did air strike kill nine civilians?
Troops remember fallen comrades
UK soldier killed in Helmand blast
Eight die in Pakistan bomb attack
Queen leads tribute to the war dead

Boris: expulsions too expensive

Updated on 21 November 2008

By Cathy Newman

London Mayor Boris Johnson breaks with Tory party policy by suggesting an amnesty for illegal immigrants in Britain.

Despite an election campaign littered with politically incorrect references about race.

Johnson has told Channel 4 News that he believes it's just too expensive to remove them.

"A mass programme of expulsions... hasn't worked: it's legally incredibly difficult, (and) it's expensive for the state.

"What I want is to lead a debate about how sensibly to deal with the 400, 000 people who are living here (London) and working here illegally," he said.

The comments put him directly at odds with Conservative leader David Cameron.

Send this article by email

More on this story

Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of external websites.


Watch the Latest Channel 4 News

Watch Channel 4 News when you want

Latest Domestic politics news

More News blogs

View RSS feed

Tory guarantee?

Cameron (Credit: Getty)

What did Cameron promise about a Lisbon treaty referendum?

Kelly expenses report

image

Sir Christopher Kelly's stringent guidelines for MPs' expenses.

Cathy Newman on Twitter

cathynewman

Is labour stoking fears about bnp in glasgow north east to get their own vote out? Watch c4news at 7

This week

Follow us

Snowclouds

See how many times a word is used in key speeches, and in what context.

The Freedom Files

Freedom Files

Revealed: the stories they didn't want to tell.

Making a FoI request?

Channel 4 News tells you how to unearth information.




Channel 4 © 2009. Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of external websites.