Blair under pressure over asylum

Tony Blair faced a fight on two fronts today over his bid to take a tougher line on asylum seekers entering Britain.

Home Secretary David Blunkett was stepping up his demand that France should shut the Sangatte hostel, which serves as a springboard for 1,500 refugees trying to reach the UK.

And the Government's asylum Bill faced a rough ride through Parliament after it was savaged last night by senior Labour peers, who claimed that its measures would pander to the far Right.

Mr Blair, after a bruising encounter with EU leaders in Spain, was today heading for the G8 summit in Canada. But he was consoled by a new poll suggesting he has emerged undamaged from Labour's battles over spin and the row over the Queen Mother's lying-in-state.

The poll, by ICM for The Guardian, shows Labour running 10 per cent ahead of the Tories, two points up on last month. The findings go against the results of most recent polls which have shown trust in the Government diminishing and Labour's lead narrowing to as little as three points. Both main parties will be watching keenly to see whether the Tories are genuinely beginning to make inroads.

Mr Blunkett was meeting his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in London to press for firmer action on illegal immigration.

Relations between the two countries are strained following the weekend European Union leaders' summit in Seville, when President Jacques Chirac helped to block Tony Blair's plan to cut aid to developing countries which fail to tackle migration.

No final decision on Sangatte was expected ahead of a follow-up meeting in Paris next month. France has said that it wants to shut Sangatte in the long term, but cannot do so yet.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said: "There is going to have to be a lot of detailed discussion, but there is a shared and common understanding of the problem."

Britain and France are also discussing cooperation against people-smuggling gangs, and Mr Blunkett will highlight the success of the Reflex initiative which the Home Office is using to tackle criminals behind the trade.

Britain wants to change EU rules to permit illegal migrants caught in Britain to be sent back across the Channel to France. The Home Office says 1,000 people try to enter the tunnel illegally each week, and most start their journey at the Red Cross facility in nearby Sangatte. Mr Blunkett has hailed Mr Sarkozy, a member of Franc's new centre-Right government, as someone he "can do business with".

Labour's leading Muslim peers joined in the attack on the Asylum, Nationality and Immigration Bill during its second reading in the House of Lords last night. The scale of the opposition could encourage Labour MPs to renew their opposition when the Bill returns to the Commons next month.

Baroness Uddin condemned the Government's plan to house asylum seekers in rural centres. She said: "Large, rural accommodation centres are not the best way forward. What is needed are smaller units, with access to mainstream facilities, which consequently will not place an unbearable strain on them." And Lord Ahmed said that segregated education was "not compatible with the customs and norms of British society". He said: "They need to lead a normal life within a free society."

Another Labour peer, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, said refugee women and children would not be safe living in centres where four in five residents were single men. She said: "The Government has been seduced by Right-wing demagoguery into making the recent changes in this Bill."