A cross-party group of 20 MPs and peers has said that the next government should not let the UK's population go above 70m. If it does, the quality of life and public services will suffer, the Balanced Migration Group said.
The Office for National Statistics had warned that by 2033 population in the UK could rise by 10m to more than 71.6m, much of this driven by immigration.
The group, which reckoned that "70m is too many", said that further immigration could threaten the "future harmony of our society".
Co-chairmen former minister Frank Field and Tory MP Nicholas Soames said: "Poll after poll shows the public to be deeply concerned about immigration and its impact on our population. It is time parties turned their rhetoric into reality by making manifesto commitments to prevent our population reaching 70m by 2029."
The group wanted the government to have more control over the UK's borders and stop the "almost automatic link between coming to Britain and later gaining citizenship".
However, because net migration went down by more than 30 per cent in 2008, with many eastern Europeans going back home, estimates that the UK population would be more than 70m by 2025 would probably have to be revised since they were based on the 2007 net migration figure and didn't take the 2008 reduction into account.
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