Blair backs Blunkett as 'swamping' row refuses to die down

Tony Blair gave David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, his "100 per cent support" on asylum policy yesterday when the Cabinet discussed the consequences of the National Front's success in the French Presidential election.

The Prime Minister told Cabinet colleagues that the public's concerns over refugees should be "dealt with, not exploited" and the best way of achieving that was to reassure them that asylum rules were robust.

His remarks came as Mr Blunkett refused to back down from his use of the word "swamping" to describe the effect of refugee children on some inner-city schools. Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education, refused to endorse the word.

As new figures showed that net migration to the UK rose to 183,000 in 2000, Mr Blair stressed the Government was not against immigration but wanted to manage the system sensibly. He told the Cabinet the numbers of people claiming asylum and the associated problem of international people smuggling were issues which affected countries worldwide.

During the hour-long discussion, Mr Blair said that Jean-Marie Le Pen's first-round success in France meant that the issue of asylum would be forced higher up the political agenda.

His official spokesman said: "You cannot deny that the issue existed, and nor was the Government, but what people wanted to know was that there was a set of rules that had integrity. He said people were not against people coming to this country, far from it, but people wanted to know that there was a system which was fair."

The spokesman also disclosed Mr Blair had talked on the phone with the defeated Socialist candidate, Lionel Jospin, on Wednesday night. However, he had not succeeded in talking to President Chirac despite efforts to contact him.

Robin Cook, the Leader of the Commons, told the Cabinet that Britain was not faced with "any major breakthrough" for the far right and emphasised that Mr Le Pen had added just two percentage points to his vote.

Ms Morris told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she would not herself use the word "swamping" to describe the effect of an influx of children of asylum-seekers in some areas. "But there is not a sinew in that man [Mr Blunkett] that would do anything other than try his best to work on behalf of this group of people," she said.

But Mr Blunkett was criticised by Lord Hattersley, the former Labour deputy leader, and Gurbux Singh, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, who described his use of the word "swamping" as "regrettable".

He was also attacked by Peter Smith, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, who said Mr Blunkett's plan to prevent some asylum-seeker children from attending mainstream schools amounted to "a form of educational apartheid".