Phil Woolas 'Tried to Foment Racial Divisions in Election Campaign'
THE TELEGRAPH: Phil Woolas, the former immigration minister, tried to foment racial and religious divisions as part of a desperate attempt to change an election result, a court has heard.

Phil Woolas MP after retaining Oldham East and Saddleworth after 3 re-counts. Photo: The Telegraph
A specially convened election court was told that Labour MP Phil Woolas and his campaign team set out to ''galvanise the white Sun vote'' against Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins.

They decided to set out to ''make the white folk angry'' by depicting an alleged campaign by Muslims to ''take Phil out'' in a high-risk strategy described in their own words as ''s--- or bust'', it was alleged. >>> | Monday, September 13, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Phil Woolas faces ejection as an MP >>> Benedict Brogan | Monday, September 13, 2010

General Election 2010: Islamists in Phil Woolas Slur
SUNDAY EXPRESS: IMMIGRATION Minister Phil Woolas has launched a desperate attempt to save his seat by distributing 45,000 leaflets saying he has had death threats and that he is being targeted by an Islamic group.

He has placed concerns over forms of Islam at the centre of the campaign in Oldham East and Saddleworth, which is becoming the dirtiest of the general election.



The leaflets are in the form of a hard-hitting eight-page newspaper whose front page has a picture of Mr Woolas caught in a rifle’s crosshairs.



They say the Islamic group, which cannot be named for legal reasons, is swamping the constituency with its own leaflets that brand Mr Woolas and his supporters as “bum kissers”.



One leaflet by a smaller group offered a hamper for anyone devising the “most creative” death threat against him, Mr Woolas said. 



He is reporting those threats to the police.

He told the Sunday Express last night: “Mainstream Muslims will be sickened by these people who are giving Islam a bad name. We’ve got to stand up to them.”



The minister, whose majority is about 3,600, believes his Lib Dem challenger Elwyn Watkins, 46, will be the beneficiary of the group’s smear campaign.



Mr Watkins spent the bulk of his business career as a “personal adviser” to a wealthy Saudi sheikh. >>> Ted Jeory, Whitehall Editor | Sunday, May 02, 2010

Minister 'Appalled' by Stats Body
BBC: Immigration Minister Phil Woolas has accused the Office for National Statistics of "playing politics" with population figures.

He said he was "appalled" at the release of figures showing one in nine British residents was born abroad.

In a letter Mr Woolas describes the decision to release the data as "at best naive or, at worst, sinister".

The Tories have accused the government of "bullying" the ONS and trying to "suppress" embarrassing information.

And Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said the Home Office should get their "tanks off the statisticians' lawn".

The ONS declined to comment on Mr Woolas's intervention.

Downing Street denied the government was trying to intimidate the statistics body, saying the prime minister fully supported its independence.

But the prime minister's official spokesman said the ONS had to be aware of "the sensitivities" surrounding the immigration debate and the government was "questioning" the timing of the release of data which "can have a political bearing". >>> | Wednesday, March 4, 2009

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Migrant Row Minister Hit by Pie
Photo courtesy of the BBC
BBC: Immigration minister Phil Woolas has become the victim of a pie-throwing protester, angry at his call to limit UK immigration.

A member of the No Borders group threw a cream pie into the minister's face while he was speaking at a debate at Manchester University.

A spokeswoman for the group said Mr Woolas had been "spouting right-wing anti-immigration policies".

A Home Office spokeswoman said the minister declined to comment.

The No Borders group, which campaigns against immigration controls, were angered by Mr Woolas' recent remarks, in which he said the government would not allow the UK's population to rise as high as 70 million.

The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP denied that he wanted a "numerical cap" on immigration.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith later said Mr Woolas had not been "gagged" after her department pulled him from BBC One's Question Time.

Mr Woolas was targeted when he attended an environmental debate held at Manchester University student union on Friday afternoon.

As he arrived the minister was confronted with a mock "border control" and was asked for his passport.

Then, shortly after he began to speak, a woman rose from the audience and threw a pie, believed to be made of Bourbon Creams biscuits and vegan cream, into his face at close range. >>> | October 24, 2008

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We Have Lost People's Trust on Immigration, Minister Admits
THE GUARDIAN: Better border controls needed, but no annual cap / Woolas pledges to clear asylum case backlog

Phil Woolas, the new immigration minister, yesterday admitted the government had lost the trust of people over immigration because they did not know who was leaving and coming into the country.

He also suggested that some multi-cultural policies had the effect of "leaving communities isolated from one another to the mutual dissatisfaction of everyone".

Speaking at an event with the Dutch justice minister Nebahat Albayrak, he said his main political goal was to try to replicate the debate held in the Netherlands over the proper role of migration.

A matter of days into his new role, Woolas took personal responsibility for clearing the backlog of asylum cases.

He said: "Our failure to resource the asylum processes has caused untold human misery and division within our communities.

"My attitude to this issue is I am going to clear the backlog because it is the right thing to do morally for asylum seekers and the right thing to do for the country as a whole. >>> Patrick Wintour, Political Editor | October 21, 2008

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Immigration: Phil Woolas Admits Labour Responsible for String of Failures
THE TELEGRAPH: Labour had made a string of failures in its management of the migration system, the new immigration minister has admitted.

Just days after sparking a row by apparently calling for a cap on the number of immigrants coming to the country, Phil Woolas said the Government had implemented policies that had damaged both those moving to the country and the existing population.

He said too much money had been spent on translating signs and documents into other languages and not enough on teaching migrants to learn English, leading to segregated communities.

Mr Woolas, who only began his new brief two weeks ago, suggested ministers had wrongly shied away from demanding that people coming to Britain speak the language, and accused the country of having an "old world" attitude.

He also criticised Labour's failure to fund asylum removals properly which he said had caused "untold human misery and division".

But last night he was forced to make another embarrassing "clarification" of his latest remarks.

He insisted the Government was now making progress but conceded that UK policy on immigration was lagging a decade behind that of other countries.

It is estimated that 2.3 million people have moved to Britain since Labour came to power, 84 per cent of them from outside Europe, and a further 7 million are expected by 2031, putting pressure on housing, transport and public services.

Mr Woolas's latest outspoken comments come after he appeared to agree that there should be a limit on the number of people moving to the country from overseas in an interview on Saturday. >>> By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Correspondent | October 20, 2008

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Immigration: Government Accused of Spin
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The Government has rowed back on a promise to cap immigrant numbers amid accusations that the pledge amounted to little more than spin.

Two days after he appeared to sign up to a cap on the number of overseas workers welcomed into the UK, Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, admitted that no fresh measures were planned, and said he had been referring to existing schemes.

Mr Woolas insisted that he had long been concerned about the immigration figures numbers, and suggested that there was no need for a cap because the Government's new points-based system would cut the number of in-comers to an appropriate level.

He said: "The accusations against me are deeply hurtful. This is an issue that I have been passionately involved in all of my adult life.

"It is the reason why I got involved in politics, to tackle racial discrimination and to help people who are immigrants.

"But we can only do that if the public are reassured that we have got a tough immigration policy and it is implemented.

"That is what I think most upsets and annoys people, that they see laws that are not implemented. The Prime Minister has asked me to do that and that's what I am going to do.

"We are going to be tough in implementing these policies. It is very important that the public are reassured that the authorities, including the Government, know who is coming into our country and who is leaving it.

"My job is to be as tough as we can, implement that whilst at the same time changing the regime for people who earn citizenship to our country to help them to help themselves more than we have done in the past. So if you like, it is a tough and tender policy."

Mr Woolas' words contrasted with a newspaper interview he gave last week, in which he used far tougher language to describe his attitude to immigration. He said: "It's been too easy to get into this country in the past and it's going to get harder.

"There has to be a balance between the number of people coming in and the number of people leaving." >>> By Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | October 19, 2008

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United Kingdom: Migrants Arriving from Overseas Will Be Brought 'Under Control' Hints New Immigration Minister
Photo of Phil Woolas, the new, outspoken Immigration Minister, courtesy of the Mail Online
MAIL Online: Within hours of his appointment, the new Immigration Minister indicated that the influx of arrivals from overseas will finally be brought 'under control'.

Phil Woolas dropped broad hints that he supports a policy of 'balanced migration', and an upper limit on migrant numbers.

The outspoken MP added: 'Community cohesion is crucial. After the economy, this is probably the biggest concern facing the population.'

Campaigners gave Mr Woolas's remarks a cautious welcome as a sign that Labour is at last preparing to abandon its controversial 'open door' policy.

They have also been heartened by his strong track record as a politician willing to confront uncomfortable subjects.

In the past, he has warned that first-cousin marriages in the Pakistani community are increasing the risk of birth defects, and that Muslim women wearing the veil could spark 'fear and resentment' among non-Muslims.

The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP, who has faced down BNP activists in his own constituency, told the Sunday Times on Sunday that it was vital to 'provide confidence to the indigenous population that migration is under control'. Migrants Arriving from Overseas Will Be Brought 'Under Control' Hints New Immigration Minister >>> By James Slack | October 6, 2008

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