GETTY Tony Blair oversaw a secret conspiracy to flood Britain with Labour voting migrants, it is claimed

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The controversial Prime Minister cynically dismantled UK border controls so that two million migrants could settle in the country - and vote for him in future elections. He then gagged Labour officials and his most senior ministers, telling them not to discuss immigration in public under any circumstances for fear of a backlash, it is alleged.

The Labour leader knew the British people would ferociously oppose his conspiracy if they realised what was happening. So he banned politicians from discussing even the positive aspects of immigration in case doing so brought the public’s attention to the huge numbers of people entering the country from abroad, the book claims.

GETTY The former Prime Minister brought more than two million migrants to Britain

GETTY He opened up Britain's borders, reclassifying failed asylum seekers as economic migrants

The disturbing conspiracy claims have been put forward by award winning investigative journalist Tom Bower, who interviewed 200 MPs, ministers and civil servants from the Blair years to build up a picture of his Government. Shocking interviews claim to show how the former prime minister betrayed the electorate for political and ideological reasons, with one saying he “shudders” at the thought that such a man was ever trusted with running the country. They also accuse Blair of hushed up members of his own party as he carried out a great multiculturalism experiment without the permission or backing of the British people. Blair and Labour had barely mentioned immigration in their campaigning ahead of the 1997 election, and did not actively portray themselves as pro-immigration.

GETTY Blair's apparent plan was to change Britain forever and secure Labour as its dominant party

GETTY But he knew the British people would oppose him and gagged ministers from speaking about migration

But as soon as he had the keys to Downing Street the book reveals the new Prime Minister ordered border chiefs to open the floodgates, even telling them to reclassify unskilled asylum seekers as people moving to Britain for work so that he could drum up the economic benefits of mass migration. He also appointed a fervently pro-immigration minister to the border control brief, who astonishingly ruled against deporting failed asylum seekers because it would be too “emotional” for them, it is claimed. As a result Britain’s population was swelled with more than two million foreigners during the Blair years, the vast majority of whom would back the Labour party who let them in and lavished them with benefits at future elections. According to the claims the aim of the project was to make the country “see the benefit of a multicultural society”. Government insiders have also said that Blair did not see it as his job to “control immigration” to Britain.

Immigration is good for Britain Tony Blair

But the controversial leader knew his conspiracy was against the British people’s wishes from the very start, telling ministers and officials: “Don’t mention the advantages of immigration in public because they won’t even want that.” Instead he quietly relaxed rules on allowing foreign spouses and students in and effectively opened up an asylum seeker free-for-all in which nobody was ever deported, even if their application to stay in the UK failed. The book says 350,000 asylum seekers benefited this way. In 2002 alone, Blair gave the go-ahead for 150,000 work permits with most of the recipients, including the unskilled, going on to become UK citizens. Some of the most shocking revelations centre around the role of former immigration minister Barbara Roche, who was handpicked for the role by Blair and served from 1999 to 2001. During this period she quietly adopted policies – with her leader’s approval – that dramatically changed the face of the UK forever.

Upon her appointment, it is said she told a senior immigration official: “Asylum seekers should be allowed to stay in Britain. Removal takes too long and it’s emotional.” She changed the rules to allow more work permits to be issued, especially to people who would previously have been considered asylum seekers. Stephen Boys Smith, who was then head of the Home Office’s immigration directorate, said: “It was clear that Roche wanted more immigrants to come to Britain. She didn’t see her job as controlling entry into Britain, but by looking at the wider picture in a ‘holistic way’ she wanted us to see the benefit of a multicultural society.” Former Labour speech writer Andrew Neather allegedly told the author of the book that the aim was to “rub the right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date”. According to the book an extraordinary row between then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, and Blair illustrated the divisions within the Government.

British Prime Ministers through the ages Wed, May 27, 2015 With a General Election coming up in May, we look back at some of the famous occupants of Number 10 through the ages Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 53 Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) was and is a British icon. After a long career in journalism and politics he became Britain's talismanic war leader in 1940, where his stirring rhetoric and leadership would help the nation to overcome the Nazis. Defeated at the 1945 election, he returned to office in 1951. In 2002 he was named The Greatest Briton of all time by the public in a nation-wide survey