MINISTER’S WAR GAFFE

Ministers insist the eight-year military campaign has been about keeping Britain safe from terrorism and to help Afghans build a democracy.

But Mr Woolas said: “If this country and others did withdraw their troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban were able to take control of Afghanistan, our evidence is that the number of asylum-seekers coming to the EU would significantly increase. An argument that is not aired strongly enough in my view in public is [that] the benefit of the presence of our Armed Forces and other countries’ is to help us control migration.”

Mr Woolas faced fury following his comments to the Home Affairs Select Committee MPs.

Shadow immigration minister Damian Green said: “On a day when so many of our soldiers have lost their lives, for a minister to say that the war in Afghanistan helps make it easier to control immigration is pretty crass.”