Blunkett in climbdown over asylum centres

David Blunkett is expected to scale down plans for a series of huge new rural accommodation centres for asylum-seekers today in an attempt to defuse controversy over immigration legislation.

Ministers had hoped to build four 750-place units in the countryside to house asylum-seekers while their claims are assessed. But Mr Blunkett is expected to bow to pressure from campaigners by including smaller centres in urban areas as part of a pilot programme.

Mr Blunkett is expected to offer new safeguards to placate critics of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill.

But ministers are determined to overturn a string of defeats in the House of Lords, amid warnings that the deal to close the controversial Sangatte refugee camp near Calais could be at risk.

Tony Blair accused Conservatives of "political opportunism" over asylum. Peers were accused of attempting to wreck the Bill by imposing a series of amendments.

Proposals to educate asylum-seekers' children in special schools inside camps were among measures rejected by the Lords. They also threw out an attempt to give Mr Blunkett powers to amend the Act without full parliamentary debate.

Mr Blair said: "We have entered into an agreement with France, and the new French government has been immensely helpful on that.

"It is not just about closing down Sangatte – far more than that, the French authorities are allowing checks to be made, effectively acting as an immigration barrier into Britain.

"That is a big step forward for the French authorities but they are anxious for us to eliminate the pull factor.

"I really do urge people, particularly some of those, the Conservatives, who have been opposing some of these measures, that it really is the height of political opportunism to say we have to tackle this asylum problem and then frustrate the very legislation needed to do it."