London: Over two million foreign workers are currently working in Britain. According to Labour Force Survey figures, the number of foreigners in the United Kingdom workforce increased by 864,000 -- to just over two million people -- between 2001 and 2007, The Daily Telegraph reported today.

The data showed there was a 75 per cent increase in the number of "non-UK nationals" working in Britain compared with 2001,when the figure was just 1.15 million.

By contrast, the number of Britons in the workforce fell, between 2001 and 2007, down by 500,000 from 24.4 million in 2001 to 23.9 million last year.

The figures have irked the Opposition Conservatives who said that the disclosure undermined Prime Minister Gordon Brown's vow to create jobs for British workers.

"Ministers are really out of touch with what is happening in the jobs market. The Government has overseen a significant increase in the employment of foreign citizens but have had much less success in creating jobs for British citizens," Conservative MP James Clappison said.

The Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, added: "These figures further undermine Gordon Brown's grand and unwise pronouncement to create British jobs for British workers.

"In fact, they show the number of UK-born citizens in employment has actually fallen by half a million in the last six years. There is nothing wrong with the fact that immigrants to the UK should join the workforce but it is a matter of concern that we have more than a million people under 25 not in employment, education or training."

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions told the British daily: "It is well known the UK workforce has declined due to demographic changes."

Source : PTI