Shadow Security Minister Baroness Neville-Jones has pointed out that EU rules will make the Government’s proposed terror watchlists ineffective.

In response to the failed attack on an airliner heading for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, the Government announced that it would use the existing Home Office Watchlist as the basis for two new lists.

There was to be a no-fly list, and a larger list of those who should be subject to special measures prior to boarding flights bound for the UK (including transit/transfer passengers).

However, the European Commission says the UK cannot compulsorily collect Advance Passenger Information (API) for flights from within the EU under the e-Borders scheme, regardless of the nationality of the passenger.

And as the British Government has decided to also not collect and use Passenger Name Record information (PNR) for intra-EU flights, this means that Britain currently has no way of collecting advance information on all travellers arriving from within the EU.

The Detroit bomber flew from Nigeria to Holland and then on to America. If he’d travelled through Britain he might well not have been picked up by the new watchlist.

Speaking about the issue in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute, Neville-Jones said that Labour are “knowingly and inexcusably misleading the public into thinking that they are creating a system which will be an effective barrier to dangerous people being able to get on to a flight to the UK”.

“The flimsy basis of the new watch list will provide no such protection”, she added.

Read the full speech

Damian Green has accused the Government of allowing immigration to run “out of control” following new evidence published by the Home Office.

The Shadow Immigration Minister was commenting on figures that lay bare the extent to which the Labour Government has failed to get a grip on the level of immigration in the UK.

The Home Office figures show more student visas being issued than ever and visas, settlements and EU benefit claims all up.

New asylum statistics also reveal that there are more asylum seekers arriving in Britain than failed asylum seekers leaving.

Damian said these immigration figures, the last to be published before a General Election make it clear that immigration “has been running out of control throughout the lifetime of this Government”, and he added:

“Even in a recession with more than two million unemployed the number of work visas issued is going up. So much for British jobs for British workers.”