TONY BLAIR accused Michael Howard of frightening voters over immigration yesterday as he confronted the general election issue on which Labour is most vulnerable.

In a speech over which he took more care than any other during the campaign, Mr Blair said that he understood the country’s desire to root out abuse in the asylum system and to ensure that immigration controls were effective. But he said that it should never be an issue that divided the country or set communities against each other. “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,” he said.

For his part, Michael Howard, who has been criticised from within his own ranks for his “shrill” tone on immigration, was unapologetic yesterday, saying that limits were for the good of the country. In an interview with the BBC Newsnight programme he suggested that the number of immigrants would be cut under a Conservative government.

Although he refused to state what the annual quota of immigrants would be, he said that Ireland’s decision to scale back the number of foreigners working there after EU enlargement provided an interesting example. “Ireland . . . has reduced the number of work permits it gives out from 50,000 a year to 2,500. I think there may be lessons we can learn,” he said. Britain accepts about 150,000 immigrants a year, compared with about 50,000 in 1997.

Mr Howard was pressed on his asylum policy, which would see the number of refugees accepted by Britain fall to between 10,000 and 20,000 a year. The Conservatives would also withdraw from key international treaties on refugees.

Asked if he knew of any other civilised country or any other party in Europe that was seeking to withdraw from the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, Mr Howard said: “I believe that we have to bring immigration under control ... if that means that we have to withdraw from the 1951 convention, that’s what I’d do.”

Immigration is the only issue on which the Tories have a clear lead over Labour and Mr Howard has been advised to take every opportunity to remind voters that Mr Blair has struggled with the problem.

It also appears to have had the effect of luring Labour’s disillusioned core voters back to the fold.

Mr Blair’s decision to make a big speech on the subject was a gamble over which his advisers agonised for days. While setting out Labour plans he also lambasted those of the Conservatives as an “incoherent babble”. He said Labour would restrict immigration through an Australian-style points system, matching those who come to Britain with skills needed in the economy; recruiting 600 more border guards; and ensuring that all visa applic ants would be finger-printed before they travelled to Britain.

He said of the Conservatives: “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? “People should remember that words are easy, change is tough; frightening the people is easy, fighting the problem is tough.”

The speech was delivered to a meeting of a hundred Labour supporters in a converted holiday cruise ship terminal in Dover — all of whom were white. It was an oversight which Mr Blair tried not to notice, even after it was pointed out by Nick Robinson, Political Editor of ITV News.

• Sir Digby-Jones, Director-General of the CBI, gave warning last night that any attempt to cap immigration would leave firms unable to recruit the skilled workers that they need. He said that he would be opposed to the sort of statutory limit on immigration which the Conservatives were proposing.

  THE MEASURE OF MIGRATION
  
  60,045 people applied for asylum in 2003
  
  17,985 failed asylumseekers were removed from Britain in 2003
  
  30,000 failed asylum- seekers should have been removed under a Labour target, abandoned in 2001
  
  81,350 work permit-holders entered Britain in 2003
  
  37,830 dependents came with them, most of them spouses and children
  
  19 per cent of Tory supporters say that party positions on immigration and asylum-seekers are the biggest influence so far in deciding their vote, as do 6 per cent of Labour voters and 12 per cent of Lib Dems
  
  51 applications were received from people in Sri Lanka in 2002-03
  
  4,534 applications were received from Sri Lankans in 2003-04
  
  11 minutes is the time officials have to scruitinise visa applications in order to meet government targets
  
  
  250,000 failed asylum-seekers are living in Britain, according to Michael Howard

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