Former home secretary Jack Straw has admitted Labour's decision to drop immigration restrictions on eastern European migrants was a "spectacular mistake".
Mr Straw said that the Home Office had wildly underestimated the number of immigrants that would come to the UK from 2004.
He said research by the department had said the impact would be "relatively small" with the number arriving in the thousands.
In the event net migration reached quarter of a million in 2010.
Mr Straw, who recently announced he would be stepping down as an MP at the next General Election, said handing immediate working rights to Poles and other nationalities who joined the EU in 2004 was a "well-intentioned policy we messed up".
Mr Straw admits he was left embarassed Writing in the Lancashire Telegraph, he said: "However careful you are, as a minister, in your analysis, many decisions are based upon predictions about the future, where, ultimately, your fate is in the lap of the gods.
"One spectacular mistake in which I participated (not alone) was in lifting the transitional restrictions on the eastern European states like Poland and Hungary which joined the EU in mid-2004.
"Other existing EU members, notably France and Germany, decided to stick to the general rule which prevented migrants from these new states from working until 2011. But we thought that it would be good for Britain if these folk could come and work here from 2004.
"Thorough research by the Home Office suggested that the impact of this benevolence would in any event be 'relatively small, at between 5,000 and 13,000 immigrants per year up to 2010'.
"Events proved these forecasts worthless. Net migration reached close to a quarter of a million at its peak in 2010. Lots of red faces, mine included."
Mr Straw's comments emerged after his successor at the Home Office, David Blunkett, warned of the danger that an influx of Roma migrants into Britain could lead to riots.
Last week a report by the University of London found that immigrants who had moved to the UK since 2000 had contributed £25bn to the country in tax.
It also found that they were less likely to claim benefits or live in social housing than British people.
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