Shadow home secretary David Davis

The Conservatives have launched a wide ranging review of the future of UK immigration policy.

Chaired by former immigration minister Timothy Kirkhope, the "independent commission" will examine policy in the light of recent rows on the issue.

Claims that ministers had deliberately covered up systematic asylum abuse led to the resignation of Home Office minister Beverley Hughes.

And now the Conservatives are set to examine what Britain's response should be to recent problems and EU enlargement.

Members of the commission include shadow Home Office minister Humphrey Malins, former press spokesman to John Major Sheila Gunn and Lord Caithness, a member of the EU select committee on immigration.

It will issue its recommendations for improvement of the Immigration Service to shadow home secretary David Davis.

"The government has been very slow to act over the prospect of large-scale migration to the UK come May 1," Davis said.

"Now because of their incompetence we face real pressures on our public services and housing.

"The immigration commission will consider Britain's response to EU enlargement and make recommendations on Britain's wider immigration policy.

"With confidence in our immigration system at an all-time low, we are committed to restoring public confidence by finding practical solutions to the current crisis."

Kirkhope, now a Conservative home affairs spokesman in the European parliament, said he was delighted to chair the commission.

"The benefits of immigration to the UK are often obscured by people's genuine unease over the government's lack of control over the immigration system," he said.

"Imaginative and constructive solutions to the immigration crisis are urgently needed in order to maintain good race relations, and I believe the commission will play a valuable role in helping to find them."