COUNCIL leader Cliff Morris has welcomed a pledge from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to help ease the strain of immigration on towns like Bolton.

In his keynote speech at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, Mr Corbyn vowed to revive a Migrant Impact Fund set up by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown — which will offer cash to the areas of the country feeling the most pressure on services as a result of immigration.

Bolton is consistently in the top 10 towns and cities in the UK which house the most asylum seekers and Cllr Morris said it is high time the council is given more support in this area.

He said: “I am pleased to hear Mr Corbyn talking about this issue and any funding to help with the pressure on our services would be welcome.

“We have been saying this for some time because while we are a friendly and welcoming town that will always do the right thing in taking in people who need us — there is a limit and we need help.”

He added: “The fund would be welcomed but we also believe that other areas of the country should also do their fair share and take more people in.”

Under Mr Corbyn’s proposals, levels of funding would vary dependent on the specific needs of local authorities and the fund would come from, in part, money raised from visa applications for entering the UK as well as a new levy on citizen application fees.

But the Labour leader may have disappointed some of his MPs who are keen to see Labour discuss the numbers of immigrants coming into the country — an issue seen to be pivotal in this summer’s EU referendum result.

The Islington MP refused to ‘sow division’ with ‘false promises’ and pledged to instead tackle ‘the real issues of immigration.’

He added that he would work to end the exploitation of migrant labour to undercut the pay and conditions of British workers as well as ‘easing the pressure on hard-pressed public services’ with the new fund. In a well-recieved speech, Mr Corbyn urged his fractured party to “end the trench warfare” that has existed within Labour in recent times and unite to take on the Conservatives for a general election which he said could come as early as next year

At the end of a conference which has seen Labour dip as low as 26% in the polls, Mr Corbyn warned that voters will not be won over by a party they see as divided

Unlike other local politicians, Cllr Morris refused to give a definitive answer as to who he was backing in the recent leadership election, which saw Mr Corbyn easily defeat challenger Owen Smith.

Following his conference performance, Cllr Morris stated: “He is the leader of the Labour party and I will work with him.

“I am certainly staying in the Labour party, which I believe is a broad church and I will aim to help the leader of our party.”