Ricin suspects can stay

Two suspects in the ricin poison plot are being allowed to stay in Britain.

Algerians Mustapha Taleb and Kamel Mezoug have been granted leave to remain in the UK after lodging successful asylum claims.

They are believed by police to be associates of al Qaeda killer Kamel Bourgass.

Illegal immigrant Bourgass, 31, was jailed yesterday for 17 years over a plot to kill civilians with home-made poisons and explosives made at London flat.

He was previously jailed for life for murdering Dc Stephen Oake during an immigration round-up in Manchester.

Taleb, 35, was cleared along with three others by an Old Bailey jury of involvement in the poison plot yesterday.

He admits being a member of an Algerian terrorist group and has been sentenced to life imprisonment in his home country.

Mezoug, 34, is suspected by police of being a "bit-part player" in the ricin conspiracy. Plans for his trial with three other suspects were dropped after the not guilty verdict in the ricin trial. The Home Office would not reveal whether Taleb and Mezoug will face house arrest or curfews under the new control order legislation.

Labour faced a growing row over asylum and border controls today after it emerged that Bourgass should have been deported before he went on to kill.

He had an asylum application rejected in 2001, but was able to remain in Britain using false names, carrying out credit card fraud.

Even when he was arrested for shoplifting, police and immigration officers failed to establish his true identity and he was set free. He moved between addresses and was able to claim benefits while pursuing his plot to spread terror. The Conservatives seized on the affair to claim that the Government's asylum policy was in chaos.

Michael Howard accused ministers of creating "chaos in our asylum system" and said the Government had "little idea" who was coming into the country.

He said: "The tragedy of what happened is that Kamel Bourgass, an al Qaeda operative, should not have been in Britain at all. He was one of the quarter of a million failed asylum seekers living in Britain today who should have been deported.

"His case underlines the chaos in our asylum system - Bourgass was smuggled into this country on the back of a lorry."

Trial judge Mr Justice Penry-Davey said at the Old Bailey: "This case has shown very clearly the scale on which false passports are being used."

The six other men cleared of any involvement in the ricin plot, five Algerians and a Libyan, are being held at immigration detention centres on false passport charges and face deportation.

As the parties clashed over immigration, an Evening Standard/Mori poll showed that law and order was the third biggest concern of voters, after health and education. Asylum was the sixth biggest concern nationwide, with the Conservatives in a clear lead on law and order and asylum.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke denied that the affair was an embarrassment for the Government. He said: "I think that firstly this is an illustration of the fact that terrorist organisations exist and are seeking to damage our lives. Secondly, it has to urge us on to find better ways of dealing with the threat."

Mr Clarke also accused Mr Howard of "playing politics" and claimed the affair reinforced the Government's case for introducing ID cards, blocked by the Tories in Parliament last week.

Mr Clarke said: "This terrorist used multiple identities to evade capture and prosecution. The police and security services say that identity cards will be a vital tool in the fight against terrorism. We agree with them." Terrorism expert Professor Paul Wilkinson, of St Andrew's University, said: "The police inquiry obvoiusly showed up a much wider network of people who had been plotting to use poison in other parts of Europe. We should take the threat seriously."

Labour's manifesto yesterday contained no new pledges on asylum, but spelled out progress made by the Government in targeting unfounded asylum claims.

The manfesto promised that a re-elected Labour government would "fast track all unfounded asylum seekers with electronic tagging where necessary, and more use of detention as we expand the number of detention places available".