The new immigration minister has hinted that Labour may take the political risk of adopting a “balanced migration” policy to restrict population growth in Britain.

In his first interview since being given the job yesterday, Phil Woolas vowed to toughen the current legislation, claiming that it was vital to “provide confidence to the indigenous population that migration is under control”.

Woolas expressed sympathy with a campaign led by Frank Field, the Labour rebel, who has called for a statutory limit on the number of foreigners allowed to settle in Britain.

“On a common sense level there has to be a limit to the population,” said Woolas. “You have to have a policy that thinks about the population implication as well as the immigration implications.”

The government is introducing an Australian-style points system. This is aimed at ensuring that high-skilled migrants are welcomed while nonEuropean Union nationals with no useful job skills are barred.

Woolas said the government should be ready to go further in limiting migration: “On the one hand is the rationale that we have got to strengthen our economy. But we have got to provide reassurance to communities that the numbers coming in are not bad for us.

“Community cohesion is crucial. After the economy, this is probably the biggest concern facing the population.”

He also signalled that there would be new restrictions on people coming from overseas to get married.

Field has argued that successive ministers have failed to consider the way immigration has boosted population levels. According to one estimate, within 50 years Britain could become the most densely populated country in the EU except Malta. England recently overtook the population density of Holland. In the long term Field wants to see a “balanced” policy with annual immigration levels directly linked to birth rates and the numbers of Britons emmigrating.

Until now Labour ministers have tended to duck any discussions of “population policy”, preferring to empha-sise the economic benefits of “controlled migration”.

Woolas’s appointment in the ministerial reshuffle heralds a change in direction.

Times Recommends

• How I lost the gift of joy for a while
• Why Ann Widdecombe has got it wrong
• Alas, it’s the end of the road for petrolheads