'Response to the Prime Minister's statement on asylum…

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February 07, 2003

Following is a response to the Prime Minister's statement today in an interview for BBC Newsnight concerning plans to reduce the number of asylum seekers entering the UK by '30 or 40 per cent in the next few months.

'We are delighted. We have brought the facts before the British people and they have spoken. The Government is starting to listen but even this target is well above the level they inherited. They must now be given the chance to deliver by September but if, as we expect, they fail, they must totally revise the legal framework that got us into this mess.'