The government is successfully putting an end to "asylum shopping" and reducing the "pull factor" bringing asylum seekers to the UK, Number 10 has insisted.

The comments came a day after the Conservatives launched plans for tighter asylum rules, including a cap on the total number of people who would be allowed to stay in the UK.

Speaking on Tuesday, the prime minister's official spokesman said a range of policies have been introduced to reduce numbers of asylum seekers and the attraction of coming to the UK over other EU countries.
 
Security and protection at ports in France has been improved, but new rules now need to be introduced to ensure asylum seekers are processed where they land, rather than allowing them to make their way across to the UK and be processed only once they arrive here, he said.

Co-operation with other European countries needs to be maintained if plans such as these can be put into place, added Downing Street.

"We've retained the ability to say no to anything we don't agree with, and the co-operation on the issue across Europe has stopped the ability of all asylum seekers to land on our doorstep," the spokesman said.

He also said that the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees, which the Conservatives have vowed to pull out of, was enshrined in European law.

"The co-operation that we have asked for and got from out EU partners in the would end if you walked away from an EU directive," argued the spokesman.

"We are now in a much better position to stop asylum shopping than we were in the past precisely because of EU directives."

Legal migration

Number 10 also denied that legal migration programmes to the UK were resulting in slave labour, particularly in the agricultural industry.

The spokesman said that having skilled workers available from Europe helps to improve the economy and that employers would not describe legitimate immigration as "slave labour".

"A tough work permit scheme has been introduced specifically to tackle these problems, however the government does admit there are historical problems and there is more to do," he said.

On Monday, Michael Howard committed the next Conservative government to ending Britain's international obligation to take unlimited numbers of asylum seekers and refugees.

The Tory leader said that a new annual limit on the number of immigrants is essential.

Howard said that the UK had an "enviable record" on racial integration, but warned that the immigration system had to be "properly controlled".