Blair: upbeat despite defeat

Tony Blair has told MPs that the EU is committed to tackling the immigration crisis despite failing to secure backing for his plans to tie development aid to asylum policy.

Reporting back to parliament after the weekend summit in Seville, the prime minister said that substantial progress was being made.

His statement came after his proposals for an asylum crackdown were watered down by EU leaders.

"On economic reform, reform of the council and on the sensitive issues of illegal immigration and asylum, they have made substantial progress," said Blair.

"The direction of policy is clear. It is the pace that we need to quicken. But that is a far cry from where the agenda of reform stood five years ago."

He said the EU was committed to tackling illegal immigration despite the failure to secure agreement on the aid issue.

"We decided on measures to combat illegal migration including action on visas, readmission agreements and a repatriation programme, including early returns to Afghanistan," he said.

"Secondly, this year we agreed to take steps to achieve coordinated management of external borders, including joint operations at those borders."

But he conceded that Britain had wanted "to go further in hardening the language on third country returns".

"A minority were concerned that this looked as if we were prepared to harm our development objectives," said Blair.

"In the end, the compromise was that, in respect of any new agreement, returns to third countries would be an integral part of the negotiation on all aspects of the agreement."

Instead there will be "a systematic review" of relations with third countries to gauge the extent of their cooperation in migration issues, Blair said.

The prime minister also defended the government against claims that its approach was anti immigration.

"Our aim is not to prevent legal migration; on the contrary, subject to proper rules, we welcome it," he said.

"It is to stop illegal immigration and asylum-seeking which is not genuine because that debases the system and harms the interests of the legal immigrant."

From the opposition frontbench Iain Duncan Smith said that Blair had been humiliated at the Seville summit.

"For the last five years the prime minister has consistently maintained that he and he alone can get things done," he said.

"Seville has shown that this is just another piece of shallow spin. He has been isolated on his own asylum proposals."

Duncan Smith also claimed that the prime minister had been "bounced into accepting EU border controls".

"The government can no longer advance Britain's interest abroad nor look after them properly at home," he added.