He is to art as Mozart was to music.”Yet she admitted yesterday that there had been many times in recent years when she had wondered whether it would be possible to secure the works needed to tell his extraordinary story.Many works in the exhibition have never been seen in Britain. Among the most significant loans are the newly cleaned Alba Madonna , from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Conestabile Madonna from the Hermitage, St Petersburg, the Louvre’s Saint George and Saint Michael and a self-portrait from the Uffizi in Florence.Two processional banners from Italy, which are believed to be the earliest known Raphael designs, have never been lent anywhere before.”It has been quite a challenge getting these things, because everywhere we go we’re asking for the crown jewels. In fact, the official figures showed that around 9,000 migrants arrived after 1 May and joined the workers’ registration scheme. Of the applications approved, nearly six out of 10 (59%) were from Poland, 17% were Lithuanian and 8% were Slovakian.It was also claimed the migrants were bringing family dependents who would be able to claim benefits from Britain’s “soft-touch” welfare state. There were reports of entire villages emptying to come to this country. In fact, just six people out of 240 claims were getting income support and jobseeker’s allowance, and 94 per cent of the arrivals were single and had no dependents.
The vast majority 83 per cent were aged between 18 and 34. The Home Office claimed registered workers were contributing more than £4m a week to the UK economy and paying more than £500,000 a week in tax. “Rather than being a drain upon public services, they are contributing to them; 46 nurses and 23 teachers have registered during May and June,” said an official “They are not taking houses from UK residents. Only two local authority houses have been let to accession nationals and those people have been in the UK for some time.”Mr Blunkett said: “Today’s figures show that most media speculation about the numbers of new arrivals was groundless.” The row over the immigration figures showed no sign of abating, however.
David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said National Audit Office figures also published yesterday showed a 22 per cent increase in visitor numbers to the UK from all countries in the three months to May. He said the Government did not know how many illegal immigrants were entering Britain.”Many could be visitors and tourists, but how many are here who didn’t sign up? How many have been granted visas from bogus colleges and how many are working illegally?” he said. Mr Davis called for all non-EU visitors to be required to fill in embarkation forms before entry to the UK. “The truth is that levels of net migration to the UK have more than tripled since Labour took office in 1997. Labour still has an immigration system out of control,” he said.However, the Home Secretary said there had been a fall of 25 per cent in people joining the workers’ registration scheme recently He said this suggested that the numbers had “peaked”. Mr Blunkett added: “By contributing to our economy and paying into the system these accession state workers are supporting our public services, not being a drain upon them.” One of his officials said: “It shows that people are going back. They did not find this the land of milk and honey it was portrayed as.” Officials said it showed the Government’s late decision to tighten the rules for benefits, after the public outcry earlier this year, had also had an effect.Mr Blunkett will be given the support of a cross-party Commons select committee report today saying that four myths about global migration should be exposed as wrong.
