Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart

The Home Office was warned of illegal cockling in Morecambe Bay eight months ago, it has been revealed.

Local Labour MP Geraldine Smith wrote to ministers on 28 June last year to highlight the plight of Chinese immigrants and to call for action from the immigration services.

"Unable to speak English and under the control of a gangmaster, these people were being paid one fifth of the standard rate for their work," she said.

"They were also being transported 20 to a boat in waters renowned for their currents and quicksands, where experienced local fishermen would not consider carrying more than six."

But in her response, Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart said "resource issues" and difficulties in dealing with the Chinese authorities, gangmasters and the migrants meant there would be "little useful purpose" in intervention.

Smith will now meet with ministers after 19 cocklers drowned last week, to discuss what action needs to be taken.

Ministerial defence

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Thursday, Home Office minister Hazel Blears defended the response of her department in June.

"I do not accept that things have been missed after warnings [were] given," she said.

"I think the position there is that there has been a problem with this community and with the cockling operations that have gone on.

"As I understand it, there was a police operation involving the Department of Work and Pensions last year and then there was an immigration operation in August last year as well.

"But this community is difficult to protect sometimes. There are forces with the community that mean people are threatened and intimidated."

But shadow home secretary David Davis described the revelation as "extraordinary".

"We now hear that they ignored what was happening in Morecambe Bay as a result of resource implications, and frankly ignoring this seems to have led directly to this dreadful tragedy," he said.