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So, for years we’ve been sold a big fat lie on immigration. And those who suspected we were being lied to, those who dared ­question the numbers, were immediately smacked down as racists or Little Englanders.

But they weren’t racist at all.

They were – and still are – desperate, frightened people no one was listening to, people who were losing their jobs to cheap foreign labour, who couldn’t get their kids into the schools they wanted.

They’re people who, having waited years to get to the top of the housing list, were pushed back down again because the needs of families coming from Poland and Romania were deemed more urgent.

They’re people who no longer recognise their own towns and cities because of exploding migrant populations.

They’re people from London and from Boston in Lincolnshire – where 17 per cent of the population was born in another EU country. They’re from the North East (where the migrant population has tripled in 20 years), from Peterborough and Yorkshire – all now unrecognisable.

(Image: PA)

They are people who can’t get a GP’s appointment and are ­experiencing first-hand the crisis in the NHS where one migrant now registers every minute.

These people aren’t prejudiced, they’re terrified – because they know the public services where they live can’t cope. But finally – thanks to figures the Office for National Statistics was forced to issue this week – we now know their concerns were justified.

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Having been told by this Government that from 2011-2015 a total of 900,000 migrants had come here from Eastern Europe (worrying enough), we now know the real figure is in fact 2.4million – nearly THREE times more.

Add to that the fact that the number of Eastern Europeans claiming benefits has doubled in the past five years and you can see why so many people are now desperate to leave the EU.

(Image: BBC/Getty)

And no matter how many times Dave threatens us with Armageddon scenarios, the fact remains that uncontrolled immigration is what will make up most people’s minds about whether we stay or leave the EU.

And that’s what the PM and all the other Remain politicians can’t grasp, because they all live in nice leafy middle-class bubbles where the reality of mass migration doesn’t affect them.

They’ll never have to wait two weeks to see a GP or struggle to get their kids into a decent school, or take two quid an hour less at work because if they don’t the job goes to Radu the Romanian.

They have no clue what it’s like for people whose lives and livelihoods have been damaged by our ludicrous open-door policy. Which is why Dave and all the other armchair liberals keep insisting in their high-handed way that “immigration is good for Britain”. However, until they’ve stood in the shoes of those it affects they’ll never know how wrong they are.

Iain Duncan Smith spoke this week about how Britain’s membership of the EU is hitting the poorest hardest.

(Image: Rob Todd)

He’s right – and it’s going to get a lot worse because in 2020 the Living Wage will be £9 an hour so the migrants will keep coming.

This Government, which promised to get immigration down to tens of thousands (even though it knew EU rules would never allow that), has treated the electorate like fools.

Worse, they’ve made decent people feel like nasty little bigots for daring to complain about a situation that is blighting their lives.

Because while controlled migration might be good for Britain, and the ability to choose who comes here definitely is, uncontrolled immigration is not.

And we’ll never be able to limit those numbers as long as we’re part of the crumbling, unworkable, fiscally-busted flush that is the EU.

And FYI, those extra 1.4 million migrants we didn’t know about are the equivalent of 13 big towns the size of Doncaster. THAT is the size of this ­Government’s lie on immigration. And if they’re prepared to lie about that – what else will they lie about to keep us chained to Brussels?