However, he has always had relatively conservative economic views and provided a cross-party fig-leaf for many of Mrs thatcher's ideas (a sort of Lieberman/Sell Miller figure).

Now however is this

Sunday Times - Frank Field leads calls for curbs on migrants

The leading Labour rebel, Frank Field, has teamed up with senior Tories to demand a cap on the number of immigrants settling in Britain.

[.....]
A former welfare minister under Tony Blair, Field will join Nicholas Soames, the Tory MP, to call for a huge reduction in the numbers of non-European Union workers who settle permanently in Britain. Soames, a former minister under John Major, is a hate figure among many Labour MPs.

Together with the pressure group Migrationwatch, Field and his allies will launch the first cross-party parliamentary immigration group. The move has tacit support from at least one government minister.

Field aims to push Brown to end Britain's open door immigration policy, which he says is costing British jobs and is deeply unpopular with voters.

The open door immigration policy only applies to EU member staes, and Field knows that, so he is lying to make his case. Most immigration to the UK is from the EU and nearly all of the evidence he cites about the social difficulties resulting from immigration came about with the sudden influx of ex-eastern bloc workers from the EU. (A lot of whom have returned home now their own countries are in a good state).

But being allied to Soames and, particularly, MigrationWatch, is worrying because both are extremely hostile to immigration, particularly those of less than lily-white complexion. Especially as he appeared in an episode of the "White Season" on BBC about Enoch Powell's racist 1968 Rivers of Blood" speech stating that "a lot of people are migrating from the united kingdom and the main reason is because they don't like what has happened to the uk".

Again here, although he claims to be talking about all immigrants (after all most non-EU migrants are wasps from S Africa and Australia/NZ with close relatives here). But when you look at his moans and complaints he's really complaining about black african and asian people, the ones who are settled in East London and cause massive resentments because of the general lack of social housing.

A genuinely progresive politician would be making a case for better care of all sections of the community to ease the strains and tensions. But not our Frank. Together with his right wing demagogue chums they want all immigrants stopped.

Tho he hasn't called for us to leave the EU yet (migration watch have)

keep to the Fen Causeway