Immigration minister 'to keep job'

Hughes will not resign or be sacked, says Mr Blunkett

David Blunkett has accused "right-wing" newspapers of waging a political battle against his immigration minister - and insisted she will keep her job.

Beverley Hughes faces resignation calls after reports claiming she approved the fast tracking of immigration claims.

But the home secretary said efforts to cut backlogs went back decades.

"The message to the right-wing press is look somewhere else because you're not getting a scalp from a minister in my department," said Mr Blunkett.

He promised to publish a list of all similar schemes which had been used since the 1980s, including former Conservative home secretaries Michael Howard and Douglas Hurd.

'Different cases'

Last week the Sutton Report found that a decision to waive checks in Sheffield on eastern Europeans seeking to come to Britain to set up businesses had been taken by junior staff without ministers' approval.

Mr Blunkett said the cases were not the same.

Beverley Hughes is not going, she's not resigning, she's not going to be sacked David Blunkett Home secretary

Instead, the system approved by Ms Hughes only covered people who were already in Britain, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

It was made in response to the case of a US-born grandmother threatened with deportation after nearly 54 years in the UK, he said.

Mr Blunkett said parts of the media were playing "naked politics" over the issue.

"It is about the right-wing press smelling blood," he said. "Let me absolutely clear: Beverley Hughes is not going, she's not resigning, she's not going to be sacked."

Disparities?

Mr Blunkett's defence was rejected by Tory leader Michael Howard, who renewed Tory calls for her resignation.

"Beverley Hughes is responsible for this shambles, has misled the House of Commons and frankly what we heard from David Blunkett this morning was the kind of self-serving, sanctimonious sophistry which he has made his speciality," he said.

A memo from senior managers at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Croydon, which was leaked to the Sunday Times, stated that a backlog of applications from people who had been in the country for more than three months should be cleared "as quickly as possible", with ministerial backing.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said it showed there were a spread of fast-tracking while Ms Hughes had intimated such cases were confined to Sheffield.

On Monday, Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "Beverley Hughes continues to have the confidence of the prime minister as she did last week, the week before and the week before that.

"She's done a difficult job, she should be given credit for her achievements on asylum."