Byrne drew on his own heritage as the decendent of a migrant family coming to work in the UK. Forwarding a “work hard and play by the rules” argument Bryne drew on the economic arguments for a progressive immigration policy and even touched on the moral ones. However, when it came to answering a question on what the differences were between Tory and New Labour policies Bryne did seem to struggle.

Byrne was followed by an impassioned speech by Don Flynn of the Migrants’ Rights Network, and editor of the Compass publication, Towards a Progressive Immigration Policy, who set out a critical view of the government’s record and called on the government ‘to stop moving the goal posts’, strongly urging that the government put social justice at the heart of policy, in order for its rhetoric to live up to the reality.

Sukhvinder Stubbs, Chief Executive of the Barrow Cadbury Trust then argued that the government's 'tough' migration rhetoric is damaging community cohesion. She urged the government to ensure it painted a balanced migration picture as well as focus greater efforts on fostering 'habits of solidarity' between Britain's increasingly diverse populace.

The meeting was shown an inspiring film on Strangers into Citizens - the campaign organised by London Citizens. Lead organiser of London Citizen’s Neil Jameson called for ‘earned regularisation’ for migrant workers who have fallen outside the immigration regulations.

Dagenham MP Jon Cruddas explained the implications of the Government’s insistence on a tough stance against immigrants for the battle against the influence of far right ideas amongst working class communities across the UK. He said "…the extraordinary pace of demographic change, driven by patterns of migration, presents government with some of the most outstanding public policy challenges of the day. Unfortunately, we've too often been having the wrong kind of debate, with these questions being viewed through the prism of race, or government ramping up their rhetoric with the intent of appeasing small sections of the electoral landscape...”.

With full opportunity for debate, questions and contributions from the audience, the meeting provided the opportunity for a frank and honest debate between different currents calling for a strong progressive dimension to the UK’s immigration policy.

Last’s night’s debate on migration was held as leading backbench Labour MPs including Compass Parliamentary Spokesperson Jon Trickett MP with the support of the unions, piled pressure on the Government to ensure it offers protection to over 1 million agency and temporary workers – many of whom are migrants.