EAST Lancashire MP Greg Pope has for the first time refused to support the Labour leadership on a crucial issue.

In spite of a Three Line Whip -- the toughest order to backbenchers to toe the government line -- he refused to support measures to insist that asylum seekers were educated in accommodation centres, not mainstream local schools.

Although not one of the 42 Labour MPs who voted against the measure, he was one of several more who refused to vote for it.

Mr Pope said: "As a former Whip I have never done this before. It's the first time I have ever defied a Three Line Whip.

"I was spoken to before the vote by government chief Whip Hilary Armstrong and two of her assistants but I held firm.

"I just think its wrong to make a law saying that young asylum seekers and the children of refugees should not be educated in normal schools.

"It may be better in some circumstances to educate them at the centres but that should not be enshrined in law.

"It's a very illiberal measure and means that account cannot be taken of the circumstances.

"There may be cases where both the children and local schools would benefit from the asylum seekers being educated outside the centres.

"It's just plain wrong and I could not vote for it. Having spent much time as a Whip trying to persuade people to vote with the Government I could not vote against the measure but I could not vote for it."

The Government has made major concessions on this issue and the sighting of the accommodation centres in rural areas in a bid to get its controversial Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill into law before Parliament ended its session last night.