DAVID BLUNKETT has insisted that Britain will not accept a common European Union asylum and immigration system with its own processing centre, visas and border guards.

The Home Secretary telephoned his opposite number from the Netherlands — current holders of the EU presidency — to tell him the UK would not sign up to such policies. The Home Office confirmed that Mr Blunkett would give up Britain’s national veto on asylum policies, as revealed in The Times on Saturday.

Giving up the veto would mean asylum and immigration initiatives would no longer have to be agreed unanimously by the 25 member states, but decided by majority voting. However, the Government insisted that Britain would retain the right to opt out of any policies it didn’t like, which it insisted was tantamount to a veto.

Mr Blunkett’s call came ahead of a summit of the 25 EU interior ministers in Luxembourg today, which will agree on the development of EU immigration and justice policies over the next five years, known as the “Hague Programme”.

The programme aims to improve “the common capability of the Union and its member states . . . to regulate migration flows and to control the external borders of the Union”.

It foresees the creation of a Common European Asylum System, with an EU asylum centre, which would process all asylum applications, a European Border Guard to stop illegal immigrants and check passports, and an EU consular service issuing visas around the world.

However, Mr Blunkett will today agree to give up the national veto because in an enlarged union of 25 countries it will help to speed up decisionmaking on EU immigration policies. The issue is highly contentious because it means that Britain could be outvoted on one of the most sensitive political issues.

If Britain signs up to any EU immigration policies, they would be upheld by an international panel of judges in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.“The reason we want to sign up to qualified majority voting is that we are one of the fastest-moving countries on immigration and asylum, and it means we can drive it forward, rather than go at the pace of the slowest-moving member of the EU,” said a spokesman.

However, critics give warning that removing all national vetos on immigration will lead to rapid development of EU policies in this area, which Britain will be unable to block without a veto, and that it may feel unable to use the “opt out”, which is seen as a last resort which could have other consequences. For tax, foreign policy, defence and social security, the Government has bitterly opposed the introduction of any form of majority voting.

If Brussels starts producing a large body of asylum policies, the Government can then sign up to them without having to put them to a vote in Parliament, which has caused it political problems in the past.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This is the action of a gullible Government. Once we give up the veto, we will see the development of a whole body of European law which will put inexorable pressure on us to give up any opt-out clauses.”

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the lobby group Migrationwatch, said: “The direction of EU policy has now been clear. The Home Secretary should give an undertaking not to opt into any further measures on asylum and immigration, without a further vote in Parliament. These are issues of first importance to the British public, and we should not slide into them sideways and surreptitiously. This very weekend the Home Office denied their intentions on Friday, and admitted them on Sunday.”

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