Blair told to come clean on migrants

The Tories today stepped up pressure on Tony Blair to come clean about the number of illegal immigrants in Britain.

The opposition went on the offensive after the Prime Minister was asked by the BBC's Jeremy Paxman to give a figure 18 times, but refused to do so.

In a bruising series of exchanges with the Newsnight anchorman, Mr Blair snapped that it was "pointless" to speculate about the numbers.

Shadow home secretary David Davis seized on the Prime Minister's evasiveness to demand Labour confirm recent estimates that there are 500,000 illegal immigrants settled in Britain.

"It is little wonder that immigration is such a shambles under Labour if Mr Blair thinks trying to work out the scale of illegal immigrants is pointless," he said.

"Mr Blair should come clean with the British people and admit it, instead of continuing to deny there is a problem."

Asked by Mr Paxman to say how many illegal immigrants there were in Britain, Mr Blair replied: "I can't be sure of the numbers of people who are illegals in this country, for the same reason that the previous government couldn't."

The clash had echoes of Mr Paxman's famous interview with Michael Howard, when he was asked 14 times if he had ordered the sacking of a prison governor.

Mr Paxman was equally persistent with the Prime Minister, repeatedly accusing him of having "no idea" about the number of illegal immigrants.

When Mr Blair replied: "It's not a question of having no idea," Mr Paxman shot back: "Well what is your idea, Prime Minister?"

Accused of losing control of Britain's borders, Mr Blair insisted asylum and immigration controls had been "hugely toughened up and tightened". But he refused to say what he thought the number of illegal immigrants was.

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