One of the best scenes in the BBC’s political sitcom ‘The Thick of It’ shows the main character, Malcolm Tucker, trying to hide an overspend right down low in the news agenda, over-complicating it with false facts and figures, and pushing forward other stories in an attempt at hiding the truth from the public.

Never has this scene been played out more accurately in real life than the recent planned fiddling of future immigration statistics being released by George Osborne and the Conservative government, covered up by serious issues such as going to war with Syria and David Cameron’s so-called EU renegotiation letter to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council.

Does Osborne really believe the Great British Public are naïve enough not to see what his game is? This is not a TV show – this is real life!

He simply hopes to twist Britain’s soaring immigration figures to con the public into believing the government are addressing our concerns. Remember Cameron’s ‘cast iron’ guarantee to cut the numbers of people moving to Britain to just ‘tens of thousands a year?’ It hasn’t come true – and doesn’t look like happening any time soon, especially while Britain remains trapped inside the European Union.

Instead, the cunning Chancellor now plans to remove foreign students from the figures! This move would make no difference to the actual number of migrants in Britain, but would merely be a smokescreen in which he can hide and boast he has been successful at drastically cutting down the figures.

The average inflow of non-EU students over the last 5 years (2009 to 2014) has been about 155,000 per year – with annual net migration currently at just over 300,000. Osborne’s planned gerrymandering of the statistics, would cut the figures down by over 50 per cent!

Osborne said: “There is a lively debate in all circles about how this number is best calculated.” Best calculated? More like how to best manipulate them.

This proposed fiddling of statistics has come at a very relevant time – something which has been missed by much of the mainstream media. Last month, a deal was informally agreed which will harmonize entry and residence rules to EU Member States – making it easier and more attractive for students and researchers from Third World countries to study or carry out research projects within EU universities and institutes, including Britain.

Although this must now be approved by the Civil Liberties Committee and endorsed by the EU Parliament as a whole and the Council of Ministers, it will essentially mean students and researchers will have the right to stay in Britain for at least 9 months after finishing their projects – in order to look for a job or to set up a business and under Osborne’s sneaky plans, the migrant numbers will go down, not up!

Then after nine months, will Osborne then decide to cut them out of the migrant statistics too?

In another twist, it turns out the Government isn’t really keen on listening to the public’s concerns about immigration at all. Nick Timothy, a former top advisor to the Home Secretary, believes the Treasury are “keener than ever” on ensuring mass immigration continues, including those from the European Union as well as economic migrants.

In a damming article in The Sun last week, Rod Liddle criticised David Cameron and his lack of backbone when it comes to standing up to the parading Angela Merkel and her persistence in trying to persuade Turkey to become a full member of the EU. At a time when many nations around Europe want less EU dictatorship and a cut in immigration, Merkel seems to want even more.

The truth is, Merkel, the EU and David Cameron are about to give the right of entry to 70 million Turks – as well as £3 billion! Why? Because Merkel says so. Liddle says:

“…..70 million Turks! Why is it doing this Are they all mad? More like very, very, devious. Because the more people who come into the country, the more money the country generates. That keeps Chancellor George Osborne happy. But the amount of money we have per person – known as GDP per capita – reduces. So YOU have less, but the country, as a whole, has more, in the very short term. And of course, the richest people in the country benefit. Employers get to pay less in wages. And they get cheap nannies and au pairs and taxi cabs.”

So the public have less in their pockets – less money to buy food, less for beer and less to pay the rent. Many of those entering the job market can only find low paid work with a glut of foreign migrants forcing down wages. It just isn’t sensible to have an open-door, unlimited mass immigration policy when we have 1.75 million unemployed in this country already.

It’s all about supply and demand. We should be focussing on getting the unemployed we already have in Britain – regardless of where they are from – housed, trained and into the work force with a decent wage. Then, when the time comes, we allow others entry into Britain to fill the necessary gaps.

We can’t cope with huge influxes at one time.

The Great British Public deserve to be told the truth when it comes to immigration. It is time concerns about the sheer volume of people now coming into the UK are addressed – and not cunningly swept under the carpet with tactics only seen in mocking TV comedies.

It is appalling statistics are being fiddled by Osborne to trick the public into believing they are being listened to. The EU will not allow David Cameron any leeway when it comes to migration in his so-called renegotiations. They will not even consider withholding benefits to migrants entering the UK for just a short period of time – let alone four years as he has asked.

The only way for the British government to satisfy the public’s needs when it comes to immigration is getting net migration down to the tens of thousands as promised, and not the hundreds. We must take back control of our own borders. Under no circumstances should Cameron even consider opening Britain up to 70 million more people. <

Cameron will not listen and Osborne wants to deceive us – we must Get Britain Out of the EU as soon as possible.

Rob Comley is a researcher for the cross-party grassroots Eurosceptic campaign group Get Britain Out.