Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, was forced to apologise today after the Government admitted that its figures on the number of migrant workers in Britain were wrong by more than a third.

Ms Smith said it was "bad" that the statistics originally issued for the increase in foreign nationals since 1997 had been incorrect.

Her remarks came after Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said that the increase in foreign nationals working in the UK since 1997 was 1.1 million, 300,000 more than previously stated.

The confusion deepened further tonight after a third figure emerged suggesting that 1.5 million additional foreign-born workers had entered the UK in the last decade. The Government said that the figure included 400,000 British citizens born overseas.

Ms Smith said: "Of course it is bad that these figures are wrong and ministers have apologised for that, I am sorry about that. But the important point is that actually there are 2.7 million more jobs in this country than there were in 1997.

"That is more jobs, yes, that have been filled by those who have come from abroad, but many more jobs that have been filled by UK nationals and vacancies still out there for UK nationals."

Foreign nationals now account for about 8 per cent of the 29.1 million people working in the UK.

Asked about Gordon Brown’s reference in his Labour conference speech to "British jobs for British workers", Ms Smith insisted that the majority of the 2.7 million jobs had gone to British workers.

"Out of the 2.7 million more jobs that there have been since 1997, the majority of those have been filled by British workers," she said.

The revision came before an announcement by Liam Byrne, Immigration Minister, that restrictions on low-skilled migrants from Romania and Bulgaria introduced in January will continue until at least the end of 2008.

"This is a prudent decision and will allow us to manage numbers entering the UK in the national interest," he said. "While accession workers have made a positive contribution to Britain's economy, there are signs of a wider impact on public services."

The number of low-skilled Romanians and Bulgarians permitted to work are restricted to 19,750 a year.

Times Recommends

• Wendy Alexander 'busted flush' after fiasco
• Lower abortion limit 'may give false hope'
• Labour lampoon Timpson in class war