Analysis: Howard's balancing act

By John Pienaar BBC News political correspondent

Conservative leader Michael Howard could scarcely have chosen a more sensitive issue or location to criticise the Labour's immigration policy - and attack the far-right British National Party's racism and intolerance.

At the scene of the riots of nearly three years ago, the pocket of electoral success for the far-right British National Party he trod a delicate line between denouncing the BNP as a stain on British democracy and demanding a tougher approach to immigration and asylum.

Howard: A subtle balance

That, he argued, was the way to meet legitimate concerns and counter the threat from the far-right.

Failure to respond would be a tragedy and could itself lead to a fall-off in respect and tolerance towards immigrant communities.

It was a subtle balance.

This line between reflecting concerns about asylum and immigration and appearing to exploit those concerns is a tricky one to tread.

I think we saw how Michael Howard hopes to pull off the trick, the references to his own past, the personal card, the fact that he's a son of east European immigrants himself, the fact that his grandmother died in a Nazi death camp - that carried an awful lot of conviction.

Opportunistic?

The attacks on the BNP, that had a lot of force behind it. All of it, as ever, was intended to appeal to those people who feel let down by the Government about these policies and may be drawn towards the BNP.

We have local elections coming up and general elections not so far beyond those. Michael Howard is a politician and a skilful one.

Maybe the government will do something on those things. If they don't, he'll accuse them of neglect. If they do, he'll simply say he got there first.

What he wants to do is take this opportunity without opening himself up too widely to the charge of opportunism.

The Tory leader has refined his party's hostile approach to immigration and asylum policy at the last general election.

But the speech has nonetheless been attacked by Labour locally and nationally as opportunistic.

Immigrations and asylum is not an issue which is going to go away quickly.

On Monday we'll be hearing from the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, what restrictions the government intends to place on migrants to the UK from the new EU member states.

Michael Howard has been pressing hard saying something should be done about work permits and maybe benefits.

Maybe the government will do something on those things. If they don't, he'll accuse them of neglect. If they do, he'll simply say he got there first.