Detention centres for asylum seekers should remain under public control, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes said on Tuesday.

Speaking to the BBC World at One programme, he called for private centres to be brought back into public ownership, following the temporaryclosure of the Yarls Wood centre in Bedfordshire.

The centre was closed after it failed to secure inadequate insurance provision.

"It would be better to say asylum and immigration matters should be kept within the public estate, they should be dealt with by the public service and obviously in that case there is not an insurance issue," he said.

An estimated £38 million damage was caused when fires broke out during rioting by inmates in February.

"It seems to me we need to try to get that part of Yarls Wood site that is available back in use as quickly as possible. And it seems to me the best way is to say that within the contract, as at present agreed, a negotiation is achieved which takes the government into the lead position," he added.

"It must be important to get the stock back into use, the places available and to be able to go on with the programme that provides adequate places for those who need to be detained, of course not detaining those who we do not need to detain at all."

A spokesman for the Home Office said that the government's policy, which involves increasing the number of detention centres, remained as it was.