London - Mr William Hague said yesterday the number of asylum-seekers coming to Britain was running out of control. The Tory leader denied he was being racist and said it was not inflammatory to use words such as "swamped" or "flooded" when over 100,000 people from other countries were waiting to have their British asylum applications processed.
The Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said Mr Hague's comments had "fed the anxieties which can lead to extremism by grossly exaggerating the position on asylum."