LONDON: British consular officials across the world are wrongly approving nearly 300,000 visas to visit Britain every year.

The revelation, which was made during a presentation to the Home Affairs Committee here, has sparked a round of criticism of the Labour government’s immigration policy.

“This makes a mockery of Labour’s claims to have a grip on our immigration system. It is obvious that its operation is neither firm, nor fair. This error rate not only increases the scope for increased illegal immigration, but is obviously a security threat,” said Dominic Grieve, Shadow Home Secretary.

The presentation to the committee was made by Linda Costello-Baker, an independent visa monitor. She said it was “reasonable” to assume that 15 per cent of short-term visa approvals were wrong.

She said that officials were “under pressure” to issue visas to meet productivity targets.

Officials considering visa applications found it much easier to approve visas than reject them, she said, because issuing was a “much faster” process than refusal.

British high commissions, embassies and consulates across the world examine 2.4 million applications each year from tourists, business people and those visiting relatives.

Some of the highest numbers of visa applications are received by offices of the British High Commission in India.

“About 80 per cent of visas are issued and yet there has been no external scrutiny over that 80 per cent. I don’t think there has been adequate scrutiny of decisions to issue. I think there is pressure to issue visas because it helps people hit their productivity targets,” Costello-Baker said.