RIGHT-WING xenophobes are bound to make hay out of the latest migration figures, which indicate net immigration to Britain is at an all-time high.

They are bound to conflate the numbers issued by the Office for National Statistics with the desperate scenes that have dominated our television screens this summer, of refugees crowded into rickety boats or forced to set up rudimentary camp in the concrete Jungle at Calais.

Actually the figures tell a different story. The “net migration” measure of 330,000 is the difference between the number of people entering this country and the number leaving.

Yes, it’s a new record, so it’s higher than it ever was under Labour, and yes, it makes a mockery of David Cameron’s “no ifs, no buts” brag that he would cut immigration to below 100,000.

The Prime Minister was talking nonsense, since he knew at the time and knows now that EU law prevents member states from limiting migration within the bloc.

And 269,000 of the 330,000 — 85 per cent — are EU citizens.

They are coming here legitimately and legally, many are doing essential work in our public services, they pay more in tax than they receive in social security payments. Indeed, the same is true of immigrants from outside the EU, as demonstrated in repeated studies.

Immigration is not then an economic problem. Social dumping is — where, bolstered by rulings in the ill-named European Court of Justice, ruthless employers hire foreign workers at below the going rate to drive wages down.

The correct response in industries where this is common, such as construction and agriculture, has already been flagged up by unions working in the sectors — extend the remit of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to prevent rogue employers from operating, ensure all workers are organised and restore collective bargaining rights.

This Conservative government’s bid to outlaw most industrial action and hobble trade unions is what will drive wages down. It’s the Tories and not the migrants we need to see off.

At the same time, any bid to confuse this issue with that of the refugees fleeing Africa and the Middle East should be given short shrift.

Britain is not a “soft touch” for people seeking to escape genocide and war — quite the opposite.

The vast majority of those fleeing the butchery in Syria, for example, have taken refuge in neighbouring countries.

Out of an estimated four million Syrians who have been forced to leave their country, 3.5 million are in Turkey, Lebanon or Jordan.

Even of the tiny proportion who have sought refuge in Europe, Britain has offered shelter to less than 1 per cent — compared to 40 per cent who have been taken in by Germany and 20 per cent by Sweden.

David Cameron and Theresa May show total indifference to the desperation of the destitute, shutting them out with razor-wire fences and sniffer dogs.

This is rendered even more shameful by the instrumental role Britain has played in creating the refugee crisis in the first place.

Iraq we invaded, Libya we bombed, Syria we merely helped fill with gun-toting religious extremists by funding and arming groups we hoped would overthrow the Assad regime.

Some of those “radicalised” killers come from Britain itself, as our security services are so keen to remind us when it gives them an opportunity to spy on our emails or tap our phones.

Tory ministers are not just too hard-hearted to help those in need. They are too hypocritical to take some responsibility for the mayhem they have caused.