The new president of the Liberal Democrats yesterday used his first conference speech to accuse the Tories of right wing extremism. Lord Dholakia branded the appointment of Buckingham MP John Bercow to the shadow home affairs team as "offensive" claiming he advocated the repatriation of black and Asian people.

He told the conference that Bercow's appointment suggests that Tory promises of a diverse society "sound hollow". Lord Dholakia came to Britain from Tanzania in 1956 and is of Gujarati origin. He is the first Liberal Democrat president from an ethnic minority. He said: "Why is it that asylum seekers are always bogus, always on the scrounge and never genuinely fleeing from torture, extrajudicial execution and cruelty. The xenophobic attitude shown both by the government and the opposition is a case in point. It took the courage of Charles Kennedy to speak up at the height of the Romsey by-election and the voters demonstrated what they thought of the other two."