Churchill called for quotas on influx of 'coloured people'

The Prime Minister feared a public backlash if too many migrants were allowed to settle, and believed the country was storing up problems for the future.

Churchill's Home Secretary, David Maxwell-Fyfe, even said there was a case for excluding 'riff-raff' migrants from the country.

But his Government, worried about upsetting the 'liberal' vote, backed away from taking such controversial action.

The papers, released yesterday by the National Archives in Kew, west London, show that the debate over what has become one of the nation's hottest political issues actually began half a century ago.

At the time, large numbers of immigrants from Commonwealth countries such as the West Indies, India and Pakistan were heading to Britain to find work as the country struggled with the the post-war labour shortage.

Churchill's Cabinet papers gave a figure of 40,000 immigrants living in Britain in 1954, compared with 7,000 before the Second World War. Today, around 6million people living in Britain were born overseas, or one in ten. They include more than 600,000 migrants from Eastern Europe alone.

The handwritten notes were kept by Cabinet Secretary Sir Norman Brook as a record of Cabinet meetings separate from the official minutes. They were in an abbreviated form for ease of note-taking.

On February 3, 1954, under the Cabinet agenda item 'Coloured Workers', Churchill is quoted as saying: "Problems will arise if many coloured people settle here.

"Are we to saddle ourselves with colour problems in UK? Attracted by Welfare State. Public opinion in UK won't tolerate it once it gets beyond certain limits.' Mr Maxwell-Fyfe raised the possibility of immigration control.

He said: "There is a case on merits for excluding riff- raff. But politically it would be represented and discussed on basis of colour limitation."

He added: "The colonial populations are resented in Liverpool, Paddington and other areas by those who come into contact with them. But those who don't are apt to take a more liberal view."

Other papers released yesterday show Churchill's interest in restoring corporal punishment, which had been abolished by the Attlee government after the Second World War, for crimes of cruelty and violence. He is quoted as saying:

"What of re-introducing it for three or five years, to see if it does reduce crime?"

On July 10, 1952, the Cabinet turned its attention to "Sugar: for Jam Making". Churchill agreed to extra sugar being issued to farmers so that a bumper crop of plums could be preserved, declaring: "Plums shall not rot."