Voters in every ethnic group want the number of migrants coming to Britain to be cut, reveals a report out today.

Overall, the survey found that 79 per cent of respondents thought immigration levels should be reduced with 59 per cent wanting a big drop.

This support for stricter border controls was shared by people from all ethnic groups, according to analysis by campaign group Migration Watch.

Home Secretary Theresa May has been pushing for a firm immigration pledge to be included in the next Tory manifesto, after the failed a pledge to cut the number coming here to 'tens of thousands'

Some 60 per cent of Asian respondents wish to see immigration reduced, with 38 per cent wanting it down by a lot.

The same is true of black respondents with 57 per cent thinking it should be curbed and 32 per cent wanting a large cut. For those of mixed origin, 60 per cent wanted a decrease with 30 per cent wanting a big fall.

Of those classed as ‘other’ ethnicities, 56 per cent wanted a drop with 32 per cent believing there should be a large reduction.

For all minority groups combined, most want lower immigration levels while about 30 per cent want them to stay the same.

Only one in ten want it to rise, making it unlikely that policies to curb immigration would deter ethnic minorities from voting for the Conservatives.

The report is a response to the centre-right lobby group Bright Blue, which claims the Tories must abandon their target to limit net migration to attract more black and ethnic minority voters.

Home Secretary Theresa May, who wants a firm pledge to cut migration in the Tory manifesto, recently quit as a member of Bright Blue’s advisory board.

A poll by Migration Watch found that 60 per cent of Asians, 57 per cent of black people, and 60 per cent of those from mixed backgrounds wanted to see a cut (pictured, pedestrians on a street in London)

Migration Watch said that while tighter immigration controls do not deter voters from an ethnic minority background, the tone of the debate must be ‘right’.

It said black and ethnic minority voters are more likely to see previous waves of immigration as positive for the UK but are clearly concerned about current levels.

Vice-chairman Alp Mehmet said: ‘The report confirms that the concerns of ethnic minority voters are very similar to everyone else and why wouldn’t they be?

‘The way to appeal to ethnic minority communities is to propose reasonable policies and reducing net migration to the level last seen in the early 1990s is entirely reasonable.’

Kiran Bali, a member of Migration Watch who has founded a series of inter-faith groups, said: ‘The majority of people share similar concerns.

‘They are worried about schools, hospitals, jobs and overcrowding.

‘It is ludicrous to lump diverse communities together in suggesting we all want mass immigration. Reasonable levels are the only way to achieve strengthened community relations.’

The Tories are expected to repeat David Cameron’s promise to cut net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’. It is now almost 300,000.

The report is based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, a long-running poll of 3,000 residents.

Blair aide: We didn't expect all those Polish plumbers

Sir Stephen Wall, EU adviser from 2000 to 2004, said Labour didn't see the attraction Britain would present to skilled Polish workers, such as plumbers

Labour failed to realise the UK would prove a magnet for Polish plumbers, Tony Blair’s most senior EU adviser admitted yesterday.

The admission came in a series of revelations about how Labour chronically mishandled Eastern European immigration.

In advance of Poland and seven other Eastern Bloc nations joining the EU in 2004, ministers relied upon advice suggesting only 13,000 would settle each year.

But more than one million have travelled to the UK, attracted by wages which are significantly higher than at home – with at least half settling here in what proved one of the biggest waves of immigration in British history.

Sir Stephen Wall, an EU adviser between 2000 and 2004, said: ‘We simply didn’t take account properly of the pull factor of England for people with skills who could probably find a bigger market [in the UK] for their skills – you know, the Polish plumber.’

The remarks risk re-igniting the debate about Labour’s record on immigration – for which Ed Miliband recently apologised.

Last night Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of Migration Watch, told the Mail: ‘It is astonishing that nobody properly considered the impact of the wage differential between Britain and ... Poland.

'We said at the time the forecast of 13,000 a year was almost worthless. In fact, it was completely worthless.’

Yesterday it also emerged that former Labour Cabinet minister John Denham had written to Chancellor Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Charles Clarke in 2006 to warn the new arrivals were having a huge impact but was largely ignored.

Mr Denham said that wages were being driven down by as much as 50 per cent and that A&E departments were under strain, adding: ‘On EU migration there was a catastrophic failure of the civil service machine.’

Not backing down: Despite Mr Wall's comments, former Home Secretary David Blukett (pictured during his time in office) defended Labour's record, he is 'confident' mass migration was a good idea

In a further bombshell, respected economist Paul Ormerod, writing in the Left-wing Guardian newspaper, exploded Labour’s economic case for mass migration.

He argued that it had a ‘barely perceptible’ impact on economic growth per head while suppressing the wages of the less well-off. ‘It is the relatively unskilled in the bottom half of the distribution who have lost out,’ he said.