MAY I point out to Bernie Walsh the disastrous Labour policy on immigration? He says (HAS, May 1) “immigration has to be subject to an open and honest debate untainted by intimidation.

Ignorance must not be the victor”.

Over the past 12 years we have seen the biggest flood of immigrants in our history; about three million have made this country their home.

A recently-leaked official document revealed that this inundation was a deliberate policy to make this country truly multicultural with the added benefit of providing new voters for Labour. I hope Mr Walsh remembers it was Tony Blair who always gave the alarmist “racist”

cry to anyone who raised concerns over this.

No doubt Gordon Brown’s recent prickly over-reaction in Rochdale to Gillian Duffy’s inoffensive question was a sign of his guilt on this policy, which I think will eventually prove the most detrimental of all to this country’s culture and harmony in the future.

Is it any wonder parties such as the BNP and UKIP have come to the fore? If they are being accused of ignorance, surely Labour’s cynical policy is many more times offensive.

John Heslop, Gainford, near Darlington.