Election chief apologises for police murder
Labour election chief Alan Milburn has apologised publicly for the murder of Special Branch detective Stephen Oake, killed by asylum-seeker Kamel Bourgass during an anti-terrorist raid.
31-year-old Algerian Mr Bourgass is serving a life sentence for the stabbing in Manchester in 2003 and was convicted more recently of possessing poisons such as ricin, cyanide and botulinum with intent to cause fear and injury.
Mr Milburn intervened after the Conservatives used the case to highlight what it sees as failings in the asylum system, arguing that Mr Bourgass should have been deported before the event.
“What we apologise for is the death of that police officer serving his country, trying to protect his country,” he said.
“Of course, the issue now is how we ensure that sort of thing doesn’t happen again. The police and the security services have made perfectly clear that we need ID cards as a means of fighting terrorism.”
He said the tragedy ought to reopen the arguments for ID cards as they would safeguard against possible other cases like Mr Bourgass’s.
Mr Milburn said the Blair administration would be seeking to introduce a new ID cards bill should it be returned to power and attacked the Tories for opposing such a bill.
Tory leader Michael Howard said the case underlined “the chaos” in the asylum system.
The Tories are fighting the next election on the ticket of “controlled immigration”.
The Tories say Mr Bourgass is only one among a quarter of a million failed asylum seekers who should have been deported.
