Tory party cavalier about human rights

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 8th Oct 2003

Baroness Sarah Ludford, London MEP and Liberal Democrat European spokeswoman on asylum and immigration, has accused the Conservative Party of abandoning the British tradition of respect for human rights and respect for the international legal right for persecuted people to seek asylum.

"Oliver Letwin is often portrayed as a liberal Tory. Well, everything is relative. His proposal to deport all asylum seekers to remote islands is a despicable violation of the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees."

"The Labour government has recklessly allowed a situation to develop where asylum-seekers are demonised because the authorities fail to process them quickly and efficiently such that those without a legal claim must leave. Though substantial, that flow of 100,000 applicants a year ought to be manageable - GPs administer 10 million patient appointments a year without fuss!"

"Letwin's exploitation of public disquiet shows a flagrant disregard of the need to treat those fleeing ill-treatment in a humane manner. It tears the veil off the facade of Tory 'compassionate conservativism'. They are shown in all their lack of glory as the 'nasty party', in the words of party chairwoman Teresa May."