Post by Hickman on Nov 18, 2005 1:33:07 GMT -5
[shadow=red,left,300]£33million for asylum seekers [/shadow]
By NIC CECIL
Political Correspondent
LOTTO chiefs have dished out £33MILLION to asylum-seeker groups under Labour, it emerged last night.
Lottery funds gave just under £120,000 to groups helping asylum seekers in Britain in 1997 — but the figure soared to nearly £8.5million last year.
MPs were stunned by the huge sums.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds were even given to the National Coalition for Anti-Deportation Campaigns, which was accused by David Blunkett of undermining the Government’s purge on immigration abuses.
But Sports Minister Richard Caborn insisted awards to asylum-seeker groups were a very small proportion of all grants.
He claimed: “One fifth of one per cent of all Lottery awards have gone to these groups.”
Tory home affairs spokesman Patrick Mercer said: “I simply can’t understand why a sum like this needs to be given to asylum groups.”
www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005530529,00.html
By NIC CECIL
Political Correspondent
LOTTO chiefs have dished out £33MILLION to asylum-seeker groups under Labour, it emerged last night.
Lottery funds gave just under £120,000 to groups helping asylum seekers in Britain in 1997 — but the figure soared to nearly £8.5million last year.
MPs were stunned by the huge sums.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds were even given to the National Coalition for Anti-Deportation Campaigns, which was accused by David Blunkett of undermining the Government’s purge on immigration abuses.
But Sports Minister Richard Caborn insisted awards to asylum-seeker groups were a very small proportion of all grants.
He claimed: “One fifth of one per cent of all Lottery awards have gone to these groups.”
Tory home affairs spokesman Patrick Mercer said: “I simply can’t understand why a sum like this needs to be given to asylum groups.”
www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005530529,00.html