90,000 come to Britain after EU expansion

More than 90,000 eastern Europeans have moved to Britain since the expansion of the EU - seven times more than the Government had estimated.

The vast majority are believed to have settled in London and the South-East after eight former Soviet bloc countries joined the European Union last May.

The huge number dwarfs claims by then Home Secretary David Blunkett that 13,000 eastern Europeans would take advantage of the right to live and work in Britain.

In all, one million visitors from the eight countries arrived in Britain between May and December - double the total of a year earlier. Nine out of 10 came for less than three months, but 92,000 intended to stay longer, to work, study or on extended holidays.

About half of the migrants were Polish. Others included Czechs, Hungarians and Lithuanians. All are now free to live in Britain without restriction.

The figure is even larger than the 54,000 predicted by the Evening Standard last April - on which the Home Office went out of its way to pour scorn.

It raises serious questions over the methods used to estimate immigration by Mr Blunkett and his civil servants. Today the Tories seized on the figures, from a visitor survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics. Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "Labour said the numbers arriving from accession countries would be between 5,000 and 13,000.

"It is hardly surprising nobody believes a word Mr Blair says about getting a grip on immigration."

The Home Off ice claimed that Worker Registration Scheme data due out this month would provide the most accurate picture. A spokesman said: "There is no question of these people accessing benefits unless they are registered to work."