The Times reports:

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, was forced to apologise today after the Government admitted that its figures on the number of migrant workers in Britain were wrong by more than a third.

Ms Smith said it was “bad” that the statistics originally issued for the increase in foreign nationals since 1997 had been incorrect.

Her remarks came after Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said that the increase in foreign nationals working in the UK since 1997 was 1.1 million, 300,000 more than previously stated.

The confusion deepened further tonight after a third figure emerged suggesting that 1.5 million additional foreign-born workers had entered the UK in the last decade. The Government said that the figure included 400,000 British citizens born overseas.

Ms Smith said: “Of course it is bad that these figures are wrong and ministers have apologised for that, I am sorry about that. But the important point is that actually there are 2.7 million more jobs in this country than there were in 1997.

Full reports.