Howard slams Labour’s immigration record
Conservative leader Michael Howard has accused Tony Blair of “pussyfooting around” the issue of immigration.
As the 2005 election campaign kicked off, Mr Howard said immigration was “out of control”.
However, Labour Cabinet minister Peter Hain accused the Conservatives of “scurrilous, right-wing, ugly tactics”. The Labour’s leader of the House of Commons told GMTV: “Michael Howard is just shamelessly using this issue to try and scare people back into voting Conservative without proposing any workable solution.”
The issue of asylum and immigration is expected to become a hot issue in the lead-up to the general election. Campaigning has taken a back seat over the last couple of days for the Pope’s funeral and the royal wedding celebrations.
Mr Howard will make a speech later on Sunday on immigration, in which he plans to say: “Mr Blair may want to pussyfoot around this issue, but I don’t.”
He will dismiss accusations of being a “traitor” to his immigrant roots and insist that most Britons whatever their race want firm but fair controls on the numbers coming into the country. Speaking in Telford, Mr Howard will say the subject has been a “no go area” for politicians for too long.
The Tory leader told GMTV’s Sunday Programme: “Immigration is of real concern to very many people of all parties and of none. A lot of people say I should not talk about these things and that they should be swept under the carpet; I do not agree with that.
“You have to face up to problems; you have to identify them; and you have to say what you would do about them.”
Immigration of one of the few pre-election issues where the Conservatives lead Labour in the polls and the opposition party sees it as a key vote winner in the May 5th election.
Conservative Party posters declare: “It’s not racist to place limits on immigration.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams last week suggested it was racist to stir up anxiety over the issue of immigration.
