Tory leader under fire for 'extreme' remarks on asylum

Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, was accused of being "dangerous" and "extreme" yesterday for demanding that Britain reject all refugees from Sangatte camp in France.

John Reid, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, fiercely attacked Mr Duncan Smith after he accused the Government of "waving the white flag" in the row over the Red Cross centre near Calais. Amid reports that 1,300 refugees may be allowed into the UK in return for the camp's closure, Mr Duncan Smith said such a move was unacceptable.

Mr Reid said the Tory leader's remarks had been unhelpful. "I'm afraid that by using the language he did and the substance of what he said, Iain Duncan Smith has put himself way on one extreme," Mr Reid told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"To demand not one asylum-seeker is allowed in, whatever the merits of the case, is as dangerous and as daft as to take the opposite extreme that everyone should be allowed in.

"To take the position that no one of them shall set foot in Britain and the white flag is being flown if we try to reach a reasonable position seems to me to send all the signals of somebody who's trying to exploit the issue politically."

In an article for the Daily Mail, Mr Duncan Smith said the Government was preparing to "capitulate completely" and argued that the French would be "laughing at us across the breakfast tables" if the deal went ahead. "Not one of those 1,300 should be allowed to set foot in Britain on the terms that seem to be on offer," he wrote.

Some senior Tory MPs fear that in copying the hardline language of William Hague, his predecessor, Mr Duncan Smith has undermined the efforts of Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, to sound more measured on asylum.

Lord Tebbit, meanwhile, has voiced the concerns of the Tory right wing. The former Conservative Party chairman and cabinet minister agreed with a description of Mr Letwin as a "Hampstead liberal" and said he would like to see David Blunkett switch sides to the Tories. He said Mr Blunkett was a man who "understands the feelings of the British people".

Meanwhile, Tony Blair's spokesman repeated that no deal had been struck with the French on Sangatte.

However, on a visit to Llandudno, Gwynedd, yesterday, Mr Duncan Smith refused to back down. After a speech to the Welsh Conservative Party conference outlining his commitment to "the vulnerable" in society, he said that accepting asylum-seekers from the Red Cross camp would be "a weak move" and said the French must "not just allow them quietly to slide into another country".

Refugee Action called for calm in what it said was an increasingly frenzied public debate over Sangatte. Sandy Buchan, chief executive, said: "Speculation about the closure of Sangatte must not be hijacked by anti-immigrant sentiment when the lives of asylum-seekers are at stake."

* The GMTV reporter Lara Logan was arrested by French police on Thursday when she tried to smuggle herself into Britain with a group of asylum-seekers from Sangatte.