WORCESTER'S Labour parliamentary candidate has admitted her party got it wrong on migration - saying the controversial EU expansion of 2004 was handled badly.

Councillor Joy Squires said the 2004 expansion, which resulted in a huge influx of Eastern Europeans, should have resulted in then-Prime Minister Tony Blair putting in restrictions on new arrivals to stem the flow.

At the time a Home Office report suggested up to 13,000 net migrants would arrive in Britain per year from the new EU states, but by 2012 it was estimated at 423,000.

Cllr Squires made her remarks during Worcester's latest General Election hustings at the Cap 'N' Gown pub last night, where UKIP's James Goad was challenged by a Romanian living in the city.

Alina Stancu, 25, a University of Worcester graduate who came to the city in 2010 and now works in PR, accused Nigel Farage's party of spreading "hate" for Romanians.

The hustings topic of the evening was immigration, and also resulted in all the parties being challenged on the Lisbon Treaty.

Cllr Squires, who was positive about both immigration and being part of the EU, said the recession of 2009 has led to people looking for "scapegoats" but acknowledged that people are concerned about lax controls.

"When people say this, they are not talking about immigration more widely, but Eastern European migration," she said.

She told the audience "the blame is often put at Labour's door" and added "I think it's a fair cop, frankly", before insisting that 11 years ago transitional controls to stagger new arrivals could have eased tensions.

After the 2004 expansion of 10 new EU countries, in 2007 Romania and Bulgaria were also included.

During her speech Cllr Squires also said a Labour Government now would ban recruitment agencies from advertising overseas for jobs, and move to "counting people in and out" of all borders.

During the Q&A session with the audience Miss Stancu said she regretted Romanians "being labelled scroungers".

"Nigel Farage has indulged in the speech of hate, a rhetoric of hate," she said.

"I ask you, what is the difference between a British expat and a Romanian immigrant?"

Mr Goad had earlier told the room the NHS was "buckling under the strain" of migrants, saying Britain needs "a house every seven seconds" to keep up with population growth and even mentioned the South Worcestershire Development Plan, a blueprint for 28,370 new properties by 2030, as a reason to bring numbers down.

Tory Councillor Andy Roberts, filling in for MP Robin Walker, said it was important immigrants are "coming here to work", praising what they offer, while independent candidate Krister Halvorsen, who is standing on a 'bring Worcester City FC home' ticket, called for Norwegian-style ID cards for Brits.

The Green Party's Louis Stephen said it was "the oldest trick in the book" to blame immigrants for the economy while Lib Dem Councillor Sue Askin said foreign students alone add £13 billion to the UK economy and insisted the true facts about immigration are often twisted.

* The Liberal Democrat's parliamentary candidate for Worcester has been announced as Federica Smith, a 30-year-old councillor from Taunton, Somerset.

She won a by-election two years ago for the area's district council, and is expected to take part in the hustings some time in April.

Next week's General Election hustings at the Cap 'N' Gown will take place on Monday, from 7pm and the topic will be 'Britain's place in the world'.