Racist Police, Guns, Drugs, Immigration out of Control ... When Are You Going to Get a Grip, Mr Blunkett? Home Secretary David Blunkett Has to Deal with Some of the Toughest Issues in Society - Immigration, Drugs, Gun Crime and Policing. Is He Winning the War? We Put Him in the Hot Seat

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Byline: KITTY DIMBLEBY

Q

You granted a "oneoff"amnesty to thousands of asylum seekers. Wasn't that an open invitation to would-be immigrants the world over to come to Britain?

would have been if we weren't doing several other things at the same time.

We are only doing this because these cases came under previous legislation where there were multiple rights of appeal, which could recommence when the initial claim had been dealt with. All those affected applied under the law before the beginning of October 2000. We took a decision that I think was very brave. Had 15,000 families been dealt with under the old law, which was very bureaucratic, it would have been inhumane, because children were already in school and …