Today’s report by the Migration Advisory Committee is music to my ears. For the first time I can remember, an organisation with some official standing has acknowledged what I have warned of repeatedly: reckless mass immigration has hurt Britain.

The MAC, which advises the government on its immigration policy, believes that allowing millions of people to come and live in the UK merely on the basis that they hold an EU passport has affected wages for the lower-paid and resulted in house price increases. One of its key recommendations is an end to preferential treatment for those from the European Economic Area.

I hold no prejudice against anyone on the grounds of their nationality, their religion, or their race. I have never done so. But this double whammy of wage compression and a rampant property market should have been acted upon years ago.

Whenever I have talked about the impact of mass immigration in this way, I have been accused of “racism”. No matter how many times I’ve stated that my concerns are primarily based around its practical consequences, I have been lambasted anyway.

I remember discussing the issue on the BBC programme Question Time in 2014. The millionaire “comedian and campaigner” Russell Brand – so influential in some young lives – was another panellist. He accused me of being a “pound shop Enoch Powell” for having stated that people were beginning to feel the consequences of the UK’s population explosion.