Campaigners have launched a petition urging the Government to take "all necessary steps" to curb immigration and stop the UK's population from swelling to more than 70 million.
Campaigners have launched a petition urging the Government to take "all necessary steps" to curb immigration and stop the UK's population from swelling to more than 70 million.
The move comes after official figures last week showed the UK's population was on course to reach 70 million within 16 years and outstrip Germany and France to become the biggest country in the European Union by 2043.
Migration Watch UK, which launched the e-petition on the Government's website, said the rise from 62.3 million last year to 70 million was the equivalent of building seven cities the size of Birmingham.
It urged the Government "to take all necessary steps to get immigration down to a level that will stabilise our population as close to the present level as possible and certainly well below 70 million".
Sir Andrew Green, the campaign group's chairman, said: "This, at last, is an opportunity for the man in the street to make his views heard where it counts."
He went on: "Labour permitted foreign immigration of over three million in the face of strongly opposed public opinion.
"Politicians need reminding that this is an issue that is consistently one of the top concerns of voters and that it must be addressed, and soon.
"It is time to stop listening to those who support and, often, make money from the immigration 'industry' and consider the views of the people most directly affected."
Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, co-chairmen of the cross-party group on balanced migration, backed the petition, saying "it gives people the chance that they have never had before to express their views to Parliament and secure a debate".
