LABOUR will today beef up its pitch on immigration by pledging to strengthen Britain's borders with 1,000 extra staff if it wins power next May.

In a keynote speech, Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, will say the £45 million cost of the additional personnel will be more than covered by imposing a new £10 charge on visitors from America and 55 other countries.

She will insist Labour will never engage in an "arms race of rhetoric" on immigration but will put forward practical and workable policies, that will make a difference.

Her remarks come just 48 hours before voters in Rochester and Strood in Kent go to the polls in a by-election, which is set to be won by Nigel Farage's Ukip, campaigning heavily on Europe and immigration.

Under Labour's proposals, nationals in countries enjoying a "visa waiver" system of fast-track permission to enter Britain will be hit with a charge of about £10 per visit, which the party insisted would more than cover the £45m cost of the extra staff.

This is a similar sum to the charges the US makes for its equivalent service. Labour pointed out tourism experts did not expect the new fee -to be paid by as many as 5.5m travellers a year, mostly Americans - would have any impact on the numbers choosing to come to Britain.

"Enforcement has got worse in the last five years," Ms Cooper will say in her speech. "Under [Home ­Secretary] Theresa May, basic checks are just not being done."

The Shadow Secretary of State will point to a "serious and growing problem" of immigrants taking increasingly desperate steps to get to the UK from Calais, including "awful cases of young men camping by the roadside, then leaping onto the wheel arches of passing lorries, only to be crushed and killed".

She will go on to say: "In a shouting match, sensible voices are sometimes not heard. That's why Labour needs to set out practical reforms as part of a sensible debate on the changes we need."