Liberal Democrats call for Clarke to resign for losing track of 1,000 foreign prisoners

2.21.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 26th Apr 2006

The Liberal Democrat Leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, has asked the Prime Minister who was going to take responsibility for the latest Home Office fiasco and called on the Home Secretary to resign. Charles Clarke rejected this call for his resignation after losing track of 1,000 foreign prisoners who should have been considered for deportation. The missing prisoners include three murderers and nine rapists.

At Prime Ministers's Questions, Sir Menzies pressed the prime minister to explain why he had not asked Mr Clarke to step down. "If our traditional principles of ministerial responsibility mean anything at all, he should no longer be in his job."