I said at the manifesto launch that I would deal with the issue of asylum and immigration during this campaign. I do so today, and have chosen to do so in a detailed speech, so that this issue can be examined in detail and in perspective.

Concern over asylum and immigration is not about racism. It is about fairness. People want to know that the rules and systems we have in place are fair; fair to hard working taxpayers who deserve to know that others are playing by the rules; fair to those who genuinely need asylum and who use the correct channels; fair to those legitimate migrants who make such a major contribution to our economy.

People also want to know that those they elect to government get it. That we are listening. We do get it. We are listening.

It is precisely because we have been working hard at it, that over the past few years asylum claims have fallen in Britain faster than anywhere else in Europe. But we know we have to tighten the asylum system further.

I also understand concern over immigration controls. We will put in place strict controls that work. They will be part of our first legislative programme if we are re-elected on May 5. These controls will include the type of points system used in Australia for example to help ensure our economy gets the skills we need.

But I never want this to be an issue that divides our country that sets communities against each other. We are a tolerant, decent nation. That tolerance should not be abused. But neither should it be turned on its head. It is the duty of government to deal with the issues of both asylum and immigration. But they should not be exploited by a politics that in desperation seeks refuge in them.

There is a position around which this country can unify: that we continue to root out abuse of the asylum system, but give a place to genuine refugees; that we ensure immigration controls are effective so that the many who come, rightly and necessarily, for our economy, to work, study or visit here can do so; but that those who stay illegally are removed; but that we never use these issues as a political weapon, an instrument of division and discord.

We deal with it, but with care, responsibly, and recognising that in our nation today our diversity is a source of strength not weakness, a reflection of a modern country striving to be at ease with the modern world.

Let me also make clear my objection to the Tory campaign on this issue. Their campaign is based on the statement that it isn’t racist to talk about immigration. I know of no senior politician who has ever said it was. So why do they put it like that? Why do they say we ‘pussy foot’ around on this issue when they know perfectly well we have been legislating on it, from 1998 onwards, tightening the system, often in the face of their opposition?

It is an attempt deliberately to exploit people’s fears - to suggest that for reasons of political correctness, those in power don’t dare deal with the issue; so that the public is left with the impression that they are being silenced in their concerns, that we are blindly ignoring them or telling them that to raise the issue is racist, when actually the opposite is true.

The Tory party have gone from being a One Nation party to being a one-issue party. Afraid to talk about the economy, embarrassed by the sheer ineptitude of their economic plan, unable to defend their unfair and elitist NHS and schools policies, unable to explain how they would finance the extra police they are promising, they are left with this one-issue campaign, on asylum and immigration.

Worse, since it is the issue they are pushing so hard at local constituency level, street by street, you might at least expect them to have a coherent policy on it. Instead, as I shall show, their policy on asylum is a joke, an incoherent babble, while their policy for a quota on immigration is utterly meaningless unless they tell us roughly what it should be and how it is to be calculated. It is an approach to policy-making that Labour would have looked askance at in 1983 let alone any election since.

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