Britain needs more migrants, says Clarke

Britain should be offering refuge to more not fewer genuine asylum seekers and economic migrants, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has declared.

Mr Clarke said London "utterly depends" on migration for its economy, and added that the whole of the country benefited from the skills of foreign workers.

His remarks came after Labour activists voiced concern over the message sent by the party's new election pledge, "Your country's borders protected".

The Tories have pledged to focus on the issue in the run-up to polling day and Robert Kilroy-Silk's Veritas party was today outlining its own immigration manifesto. Shadow home secretary David Davis seized on Mr Clarke's comments, saying: "This undermines every claim Labour made in its plans to be tough on immigration and asylum. The Home Secretary is out of touch with what the majority of British people want."

In a question and answer session with activists at Labour's spring conference in Gateshead, Mr Clarke said he wanted Britain to be a place that offered refuge for those fleeing tyranny abroad.

"That's not only a moral duty and a legal duty, but something which is part of the essence of this country," he said. "We want more migration, more people coming to study and to work. We want more people coming to look for refuge." He stressed the advantages brought by people from overseas, and insisted he would be "upfront" about abuses of the system because it was a real issue for millions of voters.

He contrasted what he called Labour's balanced approach with the Tories' "saloon bar response" of promising to keep asylum seekers on an offshore island until they were processed.

Tony Blair used a similar twintrack approach in a speech yesterday, stressing the desire of asylum seeker children to learn, but adding: "We faced up to the toughening of our asylum and immigration rules because, like it or not, decent people, a million miles from the BNP, told us it mattered."

The Home Office's five-year plan for immigration includes entry restrictions on migrants' families. But there will be a drive to make Britain more attractive to migrants who have specific skills.

Mr Kilroy-Silk said of Mr Clarke's comments: "He's not speaking for my family, my constituents, [or] the British people. He's speaking for himself, a member of the privileged, metropolitan political class."

Meanwhile former Home Secretary David Blunkett was today set to return to frontline politics by helping a Labour MP facing a challenge from BNP leader Nick Griffin. Mr Blunkett will campaign alongside Keighley MP Ann Cryer in his first public appearance since his resignation over fast-tracking a visa for his lover's nanny.