Barbara Roche

Roche gave the landmark IPPR speech that ended the post-1971 settlement — under which, in practice, settlement had been mainly for family joining relatives already here. She later said she was proud to be 'the first Immigration Minister to talk of the merits of inward migration.' Andrew Neather, who drafted the speech from a Cabinet Office report, wrote that unpublished drafts included a political purpose: mass immigration as the way to make the UK 'truly multicultural.' Roche denied a secret plot; she did not deny the policy turn.

I wanted to be the first minister to say that migration is a good thing. It is.

What they did

1. Sep–Dec 2000

   The IPPR speech

   Called for loosening controls and a US-style citizenship ceremony. It was the public face of the 2001 Cabinet Office paper 'Migration: an economic and social analysis.'

2. 1999–2001

   Work-permit expansion

   As minister she oversaw the shift from restriction toward 'managed migration' to meet supposed skills shortages at the top of a boom.

How they voted

Blocked it / opened it means they voted against tighter rules, or for the Human Rights Act. Backed it means they voted for a tightening bill.

Sources: Independent, 23 Jun 2003; Guardian, 2 Mar 2011; Neather, 2009