UKIP’s Avril Summers is wide of the mark in blaming immigrants for the shortage of school places. 

The real causes relate to Tory government policies of refusing to allow local authorities to build new schools, relying instead on academies and free schools, making it impossible for many local authorities to rationally plan future educational provision. 

She also forgets that EU immigrants pay their way.  Official figures show that they are less likely than the indigenous population to claim benefits. 

Instead, they are more likely to be working and therefore paying the taxes that would pay for new or expanded schools.

Equally she blames immigrants for ‘massive problems’ in the health service. 

With about a quarter of NHS nurses being born abroad, she needs to look closer to home – for example, at the Westminster government’s cuts in training places for nurses. 

Without immigrant workers the NHS would collapse. 

It seems that Ms Summers would hold immigrants responsible for all our problems from wet weekends to pesky seagulls – if she could get away with it.    

Immigration is an important issue which needs calm and rational debate, not the ‘blame immigrants for everything approach’ adopted by Ms Summers. 

Such an approach runs the risk of inflaming social tensions and diverting attention away from the real causes of our problems.

– Peter Strong, Caldicot.