'NUCLEAR OPTION": BLAIR PLAN TO SEND MIGRANTS TO MULL

PM team's camp idea 20 years ago

- DAVE BURKE

TONY Blair's government looked at setting up a camp for asylum seekers on the Isle of Mull, newly released classified papers show.

A document drawn up by the then prime minister's chief of staff Jonathan Powell talked of a "nuclear option" and suggested deporting incomers to nations such as Turkey and Kenya.

When Home Office lawyers warned the plans could fall foul of the Geneva Convention on refugees, Blair scrawled: "Just return them." His handwritten note added: "This is precisely the point.

"We must not allow the [European Convention on Human Rights] to stop us dealing with it."