British Conservative party leader Michael Howard's bid to make political capital out of the policeman stabbed to death by an illegal immigrant backfired spectacularly on Saturday as the police warned that his widow did not want the tragedy turned into a "political football." Britain is three weeks from a general election.
Failed asylum seeker Kamel Bourgass was jailed for 22 years for the killing of Detective Constable Stephen Oake during a police raid on a flat in Manchester. The Tories, as the Conservatives are also known, have blamed the government for his death, arguing that if proper immigration controls had been in place, Bourgass would have been deported before encountering Oake.
But Oake's colleagues in the Police Federation hit back this weekend, warning that the Special Branch officer's widow, Lesley, did not want his memory turned into a political battleground.
Sergeant Paul Kelly, chairman of the Greater Manchester Police Federation, which has a close relationship with Oake's family, said: "I am not jumping on the bandwagon of blaming the government because Bourgass was an overstayer. By far the vast majority of people overstaying in this country are just people seeking either economic refuge or [escaping] less nice living places -- they're not there to damage society. Bourgass was responsible for Stephen's death, nobody else."
Lesley Oake, a Christian who has said she forgives his killer, was a "fantastic lady." He added: "She doesn't want Stephen's death turned into a political football."
Kelly said that the key issue for the police union arising from his death was not immigration but the law governing handcuffing, over which it has long lobbied the Home Office.
Bourgass was not cuffed, having appeared initially docile, but subsequently grabbed a kitchen knife -- killing Oake and wounding three other officers.
The Federation wants a change in the law giving officers the automatic right to handcuff anyone they detain until it is determined they are not dangerous: currently, they must justify the decision to handcuff arrestees. Kelly said fear of being sued deterred many officers.
The police intervention -- which comes as Oake is nominated for a George Cross, the highest award for civilian gallantry -- marks a crucial turning point in Howard's populist campaign on immigration, which has clearly unsettled Tony Blair's Labour party.
It followings warnings from the ex-Tory minister Edwina Currie, wife of a retired police officer, that she had felt uneasy about the way Bourgass was used. "I think I would have felt more comfortable if Michael Howard and my lot had sounded angry: instead they looked just slightly smug, slightly pleased that they had got an issue to prove their case," she told the BBC News 24 television channel.
Tony Blair is planning a major campaign speech on immigration, clarifying what he sees as the values underpinning the system, as Labour begins fighting back on the issue.
On Friday he admitted during a press conference that there were "real concerns" about immigration but insisted the Tory policy did not stack up. Howard was still unable to identify the offshore location at which asylum seekers would supposedly be processed, he said: "Where is this country that's going to process all Britain's asylum seekers and apparently do it without any visible costs? The money they save from this is ?897.6 million. What on earth is it based on?"
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