Home Office minister Beverley Hughes has come out fighting amid Tory calls for her resignation.

The fightback came as the Conservatives held a Commons debate in the wake of fresh accusations of chaos in her department's immigration system.

During the debate the minister insisted she would not resign - insisting she had done nothing wrong.

"I am not resigning. I am not incompetent, nor did I lie," she told MPs.

The home secretary has been forced to suspend all immigration applications from Romania and Bulgaria in light of the latest row.

The government stood by Hughes throughout the row, and won by 378 votes to 156.

The latest allegations emerged on Monday after weeks of controversy surrounding the fast tracking of visa applications.

But in a robust defence of her management of the system on Monday night, Hughes said an internal inquiry had cleared her of any wrongdoing and that the Tories are mounting a political campaign exploiting the public's concerns over migration.

"[They] are not interested in these issues," she told the BBC.

"They simply want to use this material for their own political ends to fuel people's fears about immigration and keep a good story running."

Allegations

The latest controversy centres on an email sent from a British diplomat based in Romania to shadow home secretary David Davis.

The civil servant has been suspended for telling the Tory that he had "only uncovered the tip of the iceberg" in relation to previous fast tracking allegations.

Davis released documents sent to him, which he claims "went wider and deeper than any previous memo suggests".

"The story they tell is one of concerns ignored, warnings unheeded and objections overruled," he told MPs.

"Last night, the minister of state claimed she knew nothing of the accusations of the consul in Bucharest.  This is difficult to believe when you look at the facts."

Ahead of the debate, the home secretary launched a damage limitation exercise.

He said no applications from Romania or Bulgaria would be finalised until the matter was resolved.

"I intend to suspend all applications, not just the fast-track, from Romania and Bulgaria as from this morning until we get to the bottom of this," David Blunkett told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Tuesday.

But he dismissed calls for ministerial resignations following the claims.

"Beverley Hughes is not going, she's not resigning, she's not going to be sacked," he added.

Downing Street described the allegations as "serious".

"These are serious allegations and we are taking them seriously," said the prime minister's official spokesman.

"We have never pretended that all systems and legislation in place are perfect. Nevertheless you shouldn't overlook the progress that has been made.

"Let's wait and see what lies behind the allegations before we rush to judgement."

Number 10 insisted that the government continued to support Hughes, and dismissed allegations from the Conservatives that an inquiry into previous allegations had been a "whitewash".

"No one thinks that Ken Sutton is anything other than a man of integrity and knowledge," added the spokesman.