Howard brands party 'stain on democracy'

He branded the far-right party a stain on democracy before revealing he wanted to put up a Conservative candidate in every ward in the town.

Opposition parties branded his visit opportunistic and ill-judged.

Mr Howard said: "I think the BNP is a stain on our democratic way of life.

"I don't think we should turn a blind eye to them or ignore them."

He said that mistake had been made in other European countries. "I am in Burnley principally to confront the BNP, to expose the bigotry and hatred on which they base their appeal to voters, to talk about the importance of good race relations and the diversity in this country of which we can justly be proud." Mr Howard was using his trip to East Lancashire to argue that a balance between consistent asylum rules and the controlled immigration of workers with skills needed by Britain, is the route to harmonious race relations.

Mr Howard also pledged to put more Conservative candidates up for seats in local elections in Burnley after offering fewer than the BNP previously.

He told BBC Breakfast: "I certainly hope we'll have a candidate in every ward. We're trying very hard to get as many candidates as we can. I'm pretty sure we'll have many more candidates than last time."

As part of his speech, Mr Howard was arguing that Prime Minister Tony Blair must introduce transitional arrangements to deal with potential immigration from the EU accession states.

Mr Howard was due to say: "The Conservative Party has always supported the enlargement of the EU to take in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe. We continue to do so.

"If the European Union stands for anything it is healing the divide that has scarred our continent since the Second World War.

"But almost every other country in the EU has quite rightly taken the precaution of putting in place transitional arrangements to deal with immigration from the accession countries.

"It is still not too late for the British Government to put in place transitional arrangements as well. If we were in government, we would do so.

"The Government has approached this problem in typical fashion. First it failed to address it, then it ignored it, now it is claiming to face up to it.

"It called a summit only after I raised the issue in Parliament, to deal with a problem which it has known about for three years and which will be upon us in less than three months."

After Burnley's race riots in May 2001, the British National Party won local council seats in the town.

Burnley's Labour MP Peter Pike criticised Mr Howard over his trip to the town, pointing to what he argued was the Tories' low profile there, and claiming they struggled to field candidates in the local elections.

In a statement, Mr Pike said: "I say to people in Burnley, don't be used by the Opposition in a cheap gimmick for publicity. Mr Howard is using Burnley on the back of political opportunism and that is the extent of his knowledge and respect for our town."

Labour NEC member Shahid Malik, whose father Rafique was the deputy mayor at the time of the riots, said: "When this visit is over it will be a Labour administration left to pick up the pieces in Burnley."

Mr Howard's visit to Burnley was part of a two-day visit to the North West, which started yesterday. Today he was also due to attend a rally in against regional assemblies.

At a meeting of Burnley full council last night council leader Stuart Caddy said: "I welcome any senior politician coming to Burnley, we have had a number of ministers recently and now we have the leader of the opposition.

"However, coming here to talk about asylum seekers in inappropriate because it isn't an issue in Burnley - we have less than 40 asylum seekers here.

"The borough needs radical change and the controlled council accepts that and progress is already being made.

"And what I don't want from Michael Howard's visit is for us to go backwards and start talking about racial problems. I want to see that the progress we have made on community cohesion to continue. He is probably coming here because of the demise of the Tory vote in Burnley and trying to encourage people to support his party rather than vote for the BNP."

Labour councillor Mozaquir Ali said: "It is typical of the Conservatives to play the race card. I believe that the visit will damage the work that a lot of organisations and individuals have put in since the troubles and it will set this progress back."

Liberal Democrat leader, Coun Gordon Birtwistle, said: "

He has come to talk about his party's immigration policy and I think this is very underhand and to me this is totally unacceptable."