Gordon Brown's government was last night accused of "staggering complacency" after figures showed that nearly 800,000 East European immigrants had applied to work in Britain since Poland and seven other ex-Soviet countries joined the European Union four years ago.
The Home Office statistics did not include the self-employed - thought to include a large number of construction workers - nor those from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU later.
The figures showed that from 2004 to the end of last year there were 796,000 applicants from Eastern Europe with just 30,000 not approved. It is not known how many successful applicants have stayed in the UK.
Separate official data showed 37,865 Bulgarians and Romanians had applications to work in the UK granted after their countries joined the EU at the start of the year.
Liam Byrne, the Immigration Minister, said restricting access to the UK's labour market was "helping to ensure that only those who have something to offer the UK are allowed to work here".
However, David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the data "blows out of the water" the UK Government's claim that no more than 13,000 people a year would come to Britain from Eastern Europe.
He added: "This staggering complacency means they were totally unprepared and our housing and public service infrastructure have come under severe pressure as a result with local authorities and council taxpayers having to shoulder the burden."
On asylum, annual applications were down 1% to 23,430 compared with 2006 but there was a 19% period-on-period rise in the last quarter.
Separate figures showed that the Border and Immigration Agency removed 63,140 people from the UK in the year, including foreign criminals and other immigration offenders as well as failed asylum seekers.
