MP mauled over troops comment

OLDHAM MP and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said British troops fighting in Afghanistan are there in part to help control immigration.

Giving evidence before a Commons select committee the Oldham East and Saddleworth MP said the number of asylum-seekers coming to the UK would significantly increase if troops were withdrawn.

He said: “If this country and others were to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban were able to take control of Afghanistan, our evidence is that the number of asylum-seekers coming to the EU would significantly increase.

“An argument that is not aired strongly enough in my view is the benefit of the presence of our armed forces and other countries’ is to help us control immigration.”

Mr Woolas’s comments came on the same day that five British troops were killed by the Taliban in Helmand Province.

Shadow immigration minister Damian Green said: “On a day when so many of our soldiers have lost their lives, for a minister to say that the war in Afghanistan helps make it easier to control immigration is pretty crass.

“This kind of comment really proves that ministers at the Home Office have little idea of how to control our borders.”

Lib-Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “Phil Woolas’s point is tasteless and disrespectful on a day when five of our brave soldiers in Afghanistan have lost their lives.

“He just underlines that the Government does not have clear objectives in this conflict, and we need urgently to be told the strategy for success.”

Mr Woolas said the main reason for British troops being in Afghanistan was to secure safety.

He added: “It is a statement of the obvious. When the Taliban were in charge in power in Afghanistan, there was a huge number of asylum seekers coming to Europe. If you pulled out our troops and the Taliban took control there would be hundreds of thousands of refugees. The objection to my common sense remarks are just ridiculous.”