800,000 immigrants seek work permit

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The Home Office statistics did not include the self-employed - thought to include a large number of construction workers - nor those from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU later.

Separate figures also showed the number of failed asylum seekers and dependants removed from Britain last year fell 26% compared with the previous 12 months, to 13,595.

Annual asylum applications were down 1% to 23,430 compared with 2006, but there was a 19% period-on-period rise in the last quarter.

The number who claimed asylum from October to December was the highest since the first quarter of 2005, contrasting with the situation in 15 other EU countries which saw an 8% fall in the same period.

In the Eastern European figures, there had been 796,000 applicants by the end of last year of which 766,000 were approved. The total in 2007 was 214,510 compared with 234,725 the year before. It is unknown how many remain in the UK.

Just over 89,000 immigrants from the eight countries are claiming child benefit, and there have been 4,900 successful applications for income support, Jobseeker's Allowance or state pension. A further 51,500 are claiming tax credits, and 1,021 are receiving help for homelessness.

Separate Government data showed 30,570 Bulgarians and Romanians had applications to work in the UK granted, after they joined the EU at the start of the year. A further 7,295 were allowed to work here under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers scheme.

The Home Office said annual asylum applications were at their lowest for 14 years. Overall, the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) removed 63,140 people from the UK in the year, including foreign criminals and other immigration offenders as well as failed asylum seekers.

Immigration minister Liam Byrne said: "(These) figures prove that last year we deported someone every eight minutes - and we got our priorities straight. We deported the highest ever number of foreign law-breakers - up by a huge 80% - and we attacked illegal working much harder because it undercuts British wages, with 40% more illegal working operations. That helped us boost removals of non-asylum seekers to almost 50,000 - that's 9% up on the year before."