Influx of 10,000 foreign workers for Olympic jobs

The statistics also show that the number of overseas workers seeking jobs in Newham is higher than for any other local authority in Britain — and that the rate of arrivals is rising.

The influx, which comes despite the recession and a drop in arrivals elsewhere in the country, will intensify the debate about how many Olympic jobs are going to local workers.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act last year showed a third of workers on the Stratford site were foreign, prompting concern from MPs and the local council.

Officials also admitted those classed as "local" workers only needed an address in Newham, regardless of their nationality or how long they have lived in the borough, even though a key aim of the Games is to improve the job prospects of east London's unemployed.

Today's statistics will heighten concerns about whether this objective is being fulfilled. They show that in the six months between April and September last year, 10,680 National Insurance numbers were issued to foreign citizens in Newham.

More than a third were from eastern Europe, with 1,510 Poles, 1,090 Romanians and 850 Lithuanians among those coming into the borough. Bulgarians accounted for a further 520, although the biggest influx was from India, whose citizens made up nearly 1,800 of the total.

The figures, from the Department for Work and Pensions, also show Newham has more overseas nationals joining its working population than any other local authority, with its 10,680 arrivals outnumbering the 9,570 in Brent, the next highest total.

Other boroughs with large numbers of foreign workers receiving National Insurance numbers during the six-month period included nearby Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets, which both registered more than 6,000 arrivals, and Hackney, which had 4,350.

The large number of overseas arrivals in Newham — which is equivalent to the combined total of Birmingham and Manchester — followed a similar influx over the previous two years.

There is no indication from the figures as to how many foreign workers obtained jobs in Newham or the Olympic site, but the substantial and continuing flow of workers into the borough is likely to prompt questions about how many jobs generated by the 2012 Games are going to local people.

The Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, has expressed concerns that migrant workers could outnumber long-standing residents employed on the site and has pressed for skills training to ensure more of the borough's unemployed gain Olympic work.

Today's statistics followed figures last year which showed that only 63 per cent of the 3,046 workers on the Olympic site at the time were British.