London, UK - Lord Carey of Clifton has called for a "reasonable limit" to be imposed on the number of migrants entering Britain.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury said he was not calling for a ban on non-Christian immigrants settling in Britain, but he warned that if concerns about immigration were not addressed it could play into the hands of the British National Party.
"What I think we must call for is an understanding on the part of those who come into our country that they are coming into one which values parliamentary democracy, which is built upon our Christian heritage. They have got to understand our commitment to the English language and espouse it, and they must understand our history," he said in an interview with the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.
Lord Carey said he was not arguing for an outright ban on new immigration but believed that there needed to be a "reasonable limit" on the numbers coming into the country.
The BNP was already making political capital out of the sense of unfairness that many people felt over the issue. "If we don't do something about this, we play immediately into the hands of the BNP. That is very clear indeed. They are working and exploiting frustration, a sense of alienation on the part of white working class people who are saying 'our jobs are being taken by people from abroad'."
Lord Carey is a member of the cross-party parliamentary group on balanced migration that today calls on all the major parties to make a commitment in their manifestos for this year's general election not to allow the UK's population to reach 70 million.
In a statement posted on the website of one prominent member, the Labour MP Frank Field, the group says that a political commitment to reduce net annual immigration to the levels of the early 1990s – about 40,000, compared with 163,000 in 2008 – was the first step towards avoiding reaching the 70 million figure by 2029.
The declaration warns that the current scale of immigration is "unprecedented" and that failure to stem it "would be seriously damaging to the future harmony of our society".
As well as Lord Carey and Frank Field, the group's declaration, "70 million is too many", is signed by 17 other parliamentarians including the former Commons Speaker Baroness Boothroyd, five Labour MPs and peers, ten Conservatives and two crossbenchers.
The declaration states: "We welcome the considerable benefits that immigration has brought to British life. However, we note that over the last decade immigration has reached unprecedented levels. Furthermore, we note that a major inquiry by the Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Lords found no evidence that net immigration generates significant economic benefits for the existing UK population.
"We note also that the latest household projections show that nearly 40 per cent of new households to be formed by 2031 will be the result of immigration – approximately one every five minutes."
It continues: "We are convinced that failure to take action would be seriously damaging to the future harmony of our society. Nearly a million votes by our fellow citizens for an extremist party amount to a danger sign which must not be ignored. For too long the major political parties have failed to address these issues and the intense, if largely private, concern that they generate throughout our country.
"If politicians want to rebuild the public's trust in the political system, they cannot continue to ignore this issue which matters so much to so many people. The time has come for action."
The declaration notes official projections suggesting the population of the UK is on track to increase from 61.4 million in 2008 to more than 70 million by 2029, with nearly all of the increase coming in England. It warned that immigration on such a scale "will have a significant impact on our public services, our quality of life and on the nature of our society".
The signatories acknowledged that returning to immigration levels of two decades ago "will not be easy to achieve" and could take several years.
But they argue: "The first requirement is a clear political decision to put in hand the measures required to restore control over our borders, to break the present almost automatic link between coming to Britain and later gaining citizenship, and thus take a range of further measures to limit the growth in our population."