The home secretary has rejected calls for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to stop returning asylum seekers to Iraq.

The agency has warned it is too dangerous to return people to the country.

But a Home Office spokesman defended the move, saying: "We believe that the returns of failed Iraqi asylum claimants are necessary to maintain the integrity of the asylum system."

Meanwhile in the Commons, Conservatives accused David Blunkett of using the "politics of confusion" over a decision by EU ministers to adopt qualified majority voting on asylum and immigration matters.

Shadow home secretary David Davis insisted that Britain will lose its veto over who is allowed to enter, a claim rejected by Blunkett.

"If we don't like what other EU countries do on immigration and nationality we have the right to opt in or out to suit the British people," he insisted.