Tory candidates in marginal seats stir up storm by playing race card

[Anarcho-Socialist]

By Colin Brown, Nigel Morris and Marie Woolf
22 April 2005

The Independent

Conservative candidatesin marginal seats across Britain are raising fears about the impact of immigration and asylum on council tax, schools and hospitals to swing the populist vote behind the Tories. A survey by The Independent reveals Tory candidates from the south coast to the Scottish Highlands are playing the immigration card to win over undecided voters dissatisfied with Labour.

One Tory leaflet from Andrew Pelling, standing in Croydon Central, where Lunar House, the Home Office immigration assessment office, is based, depicts a world map under the headline "Unlimited Immigration". It has an arrow pointing to Croydon. A Labour campaigner said: "The message is pretty clear ­ the world's immigrants are heading to Croydon."

A leading Tory in the area confirmed the policy was attracting support. "Immigration is still running very strongly here. I went campaigning in a Labour area last night and we couldn't get rid of our leaflets fast enough. This issue has been talked about for months at Westminster, but the public are just waking up to it," he said. In other Conservative election literature, Nick de Bois, candidate in Enfield North, warns of "the strain put on local schools by bogus asylum-seekers". Anne Main, standing in St Albans, says five "illegal immigrants" were arrested and freed in the area although "nobody knows if these people were criminals, carrying diseases". Alan Milburn, Labour's campaign co-ordinator, said: "This confirms the Tory strategy is to exploit these issues, not to deal with them."

Tauhid Pasha, legal policy director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: "It's plain and simple scaremongering. Foreign nationals don't pose a threat to resources and public services." Some senior Tory figures are appalled at the tone of the campaign and an advertisement by Bob Spink, a Tory candidate in Castle Point, south Essex, targeting failed asylum-seekers, which calls on Tony Blair to "send them back". One former minister who is standing as a Tory candidate in the South said: "Spink is a complete idiot. It is redolent of John Townend at the last election but I don't think Michael will lift a finger ... I think Michael Howard could do himself a power of good by sounding as if he is the prime minister in waiting but he hasn't done that."

More at: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=631926