2.5m workers only speak English as a second choice... and today we open the door to 30m more

And half of those need help to communicate, according to official figures.

... And today we open the door to 30m more

The total is the equivalent of one in every 12 in the workplace in England. And the number is growing by 150,000 a year because of Labour's 'open door' immigration policies.

Although many migrants want to learn English, experts say there are not enough places on language courses to cope with demand.

The influx of Romanians and Bulgarians will send the figure even higher. As migrants who do not speak English find it harder to integrate, there is a risk that 'ghetto' communities will be created and racial tension will increase, experts warn.

The Department for Education figure applies to the working age population - 16 to 60 for women and 65 for men. But this total is unlikely to show the full scale of those who struggle to speak English.

It does not include elderly migrants such as women who stayed at home after arriving in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s and did not learn English - or children recently arrived from countries such as Poland.

Referring to the 2.5million identified by the Government, Skills Minister Phil Hope said: "There are no exact figures for the numbers of people who do not speak English at all, but it is estimated that around half of those who spoke another language would benefit from help with their English skills."

Last month, Tony Blair said immigrants had a 'duty to integrate'. This included learning English language. Ministers have also opted to make anybody who wants to stay here permanently to sit a citizenship test written in English.

But Tory home affairs spokesman David Davis said: "The Government is belatedly waking up to the fact that their policies on multiculturalism have failed to promote community cohesion.

"If anything they have done the opposite. We welcome their recognition of this.

"Now they must ensure all resources are concentrated on efforts that will promote better integration such as English language classes."

No figures are available for how many spoke only limited English when Labour came to power, but the total is certain to have grown significantly.

The Government's policies have swollen the overall population by 1.5million since 1997. And little attention has been paid to the language skills of arrivals.

More than 600,000 eastern Europeans have arrived in the past two years alone.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said: "Language is absolutely vital to integration. It is a serious indictment of multiculturalism that we should now find that we have one million of working age who need help with their English."

The estimated demand for language classes is in the region of 150,000 migrants each year, according to the Advisory Board on Naturalisation and Integration.

About 99,000 of these are from outside the EU and around 50,000 from Eastern Europe.

But although demand is 'huge', there is insufficient capacity to cope, it warned.

The classes were designed for non-EU immigrants with poor English who want to sit citizenship exams. But Eastern Europeans are signing up in huge numbers.

As they are EU citizens with the same right to an education as a British national, they must be allowed to take part. Enrolments by Poles alone leapt from 151 in 2002/ 3 to 11,044 in 2004/ 5 - the year the EU expanded eastwards.

But chairman Mary Coussey said this meant non-EU nationals, such as migrants from India and Pakistan, faced long waiting lists.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, said there was a "small number of people who don't particularly feel they need to learn English because they stay at home". But the 'vast majority of migrants' do want to.

Local Government Minister Phil Woolas said £1billion was being spent on teaching 1.8million English.