Labour tackles Tories on immigration
On Friday immigration took centre stage as Tony Blair decided to launch an attack on the Conservatives’ immigration politics.
Michael Howard has been campaigning strongly on immigration in the first two weeks of the campaign but this was Tony Blair’s first speech on the issue.
Mr Blair accused the Conservatives of moving from “a one nation to a one issue party” and said that concerns about immigration and asylum should never become a “political weapon”. (full story)
He said that the Conservative immigration plans were an “incoherent babble”, saying they had not produced figures for their proposed quota and had failed to say where the “fantasy island” which would process Britain’s applications was.
Accusing Mr Blair of being “rattled” and “all talk” on immigration the Conservatives instead chose to focus on crime and law and order, although Michael Howard did pop up later in the day suggesting that it was immigration that was responsible for plans to build more houses in the South East.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis focused on crime, saying that police paperwork should be cut and police officers returned to the street. (full story)
Mr Davis said that contrary to Government claims, violent crime and the fear of crime was increasing and would continue to do so if the Labour party was re-elected.
He said the Tories would stop the rising tide of paperwork, which was keeping “policemen and women chained to their desks”.
The Liberal Democrats chose to focus on the female vote, stressing how their policies would benefit women. Charles Kennedy highlighted in particular his party’s plans for a citizen’s pension, which would be based on residency and not National Insurance contributions. This, he said, would particularly benefit women who are more likely to take breaks from work either to start a family or care for relatives. (full story)
Elsewhere, a coalition of senior scientists said that the three main parties were not paying sufficient attention to environmental issues (full story) and a motoring organisation suggested that it would be drivers of Ford Focus cars that will decide the outcome of the election. (full story)
