A DEFIANT Jack Straw was back at work today vowing not to quit over the Lawrence fiasco and insisting he had no regrets about his weekend holiday in France.

But he did say that he deeply regretted the fact that the names of witnesses and informants who helped the investigation into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence were published into the report into the bungled police inquiry into the killing.

The Blackburn MP said that he had duties to his family as well as to Parliament and attacked the Tories for agreeing to his deputy Paul Boateng making the Commons statement on Friday and later attacking that decision.

The Home Secretary spoke as he published a report today which singled out Lancashire Police with praise for its work to tackle racism.

Mr Straw told the Evening Telegraph that there was no question of him resigning.

Of his Tory Shadow Sir Norman Fowler's call for him to quit he said: "I think its a wind-up.

"On Thursday they agreed with me that Paul would make the statement and yet on Sunday Sir Norman was calling for my resignation. It just shows that they are all over the place." Of the publication of the names in the appendix to Sir William MacPherson's report Mr Straw said: "I have regretted that from the moment it happened, but I do not regret going to France.

"We have to balance our work with our families. "Politicians have obligations to their families, perhaps more so than others because we see them less."

Mr Straw said that the dramatic change over the last two weeks from being talked up as a future prime minister to the current criticism was just part of the job.

He said: "When they were talking of me as a future prime minister two weeks ago, it was all overblown and it's all overblown now."

Although he said he had no regrets at seeking an injunction to try tod prevent publication of leaks from the report last weekend Mr Straw described the publication of the informants' names as "dreadful."

He said the Tories should not even have raised a question over it because it all appeared to have been sorted out.

Today Sir Norman Fowler said the Home Secretary's case had been it was "everyone else's responsibility rather than his."

He claimed Mr Straw should have stayed in the country to reassure those named and try to identify what had gone wrong.

Today's report into tackling racism in the police commends Lancashire but criticises the neighbouring Greater Manchester force for failing to do enough to deal with the problem.

Mr Straw said the report made "dismal reading" because so many forces were not making progress, and 17 of them - 40 per cent of the total - had no community and race relations strategy.

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