Widdecombe repeats Tory pledges (From Bournemouth Echo)

Widdecombe repeats Tory pledges

5:22pm Tuesday 20th February 2001

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SHADOW Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe visited Harlow on Thursday evening as guest speaker at an event in aid of Victim Support.

A 100-plus audience bidded for a bottle of House of Commons whisky in an auction that raised £70.

A further £300 was raised by a collection.

During her address, Ms Widdecombe reiterated Tory pledges to increase police levels, toughen up sentencing, make prison work and reduce the number of asylum seekers.

On the day of the visit, a row was brewing in Westminster after a new computer system intended to speed up the processing of asylum applications was scrapped.

Speaking to the Citizen earlier in the evening Ms Widdecome had no doubt where the blame lay: "It's very simple, the Conservatives reduced the number of case workers because we reduced the number of asylum seekers after the 1996 Act there was a 40 per cent drop in the number of applications enabling us to do that.

"This government has increased the number of asylum seekers to 70,000 so it needs more case workers."

Ms Widdecome argued that the computer system, which was up to the original task, cannot cope with these numbers. She asked why it has taken the government four years to realise this.

"It is so embarrassed by the asylum situation it utterly failed to react. It has failed on vouchers, it has failed on dispersals and now it is blaming the computer."

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