Labour Accuses PM Over Migrant Boat Deaths

Ed Miliband has suggested David Cameron is partly to blame for the deaths of hundreds of refugees fleeing North Africa.

But the Labour leader's comments drew a swift rebuke, with the Tories accusing him of a "provocative and shameful intervention", while the Prime Minister dismissed them as "ill-judged".

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has also said it was "distasteful" to reduce the human tragedy in the Mediterranean "to a political point-scoring blame game".

In a foreign policy speech, Mr Miliband indicated the deaths of hundreds fleeing North Africa are "in part a direct result" of the coalition Government's 2011 military intervention against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

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It comes after the Prime Minister committed one of the UK's biggest warships to the mission to try and resolve the migrant crisis.

Mr Miliband told the Chatham House think-tank: "In Libya Labour supported action to stop the Gaddafi regime but since the action the failure of post-conflict planning has been obvious.

"David Cameron was wrong to assume that Libya was a country whose institutions could simply be left to evolve and transform themselves.

"What we have seen in Libya is that when tensions over power and resource began to emerge, they simply reinforced deep-seated ideological and ethnic fault lines in the country, meaning the hopes of the revolutionary uprisings quickly began to unravel.

"The tragedy is this could have been anticipated and it should have been avoided.

"And Britain could have played its part in ensuring the international community stood by the people of Libya in practice rather than standing behind the unfounded hopes of potential progress only in principle."

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While extracts of his speech did not make a direct link, Labour made clear his message was that "the refugee crisis and tragic scenes this week in the Mediterranean are in part a direct result of the failure of post-conflict planning for Libya".

Pressed repeatedly by journalists after his speech, Mr Miliband said Mr Cameron "bears some responsibility" for the current refugee crisis, but rejected claims he was playing politics with the tragedy.

He argued the Tories were "trying to whip up a big storm about this", and added: "The international community as a whole, including our government, bears some responsibility for the crisis we see in Libya. I think that is undeniable.

"As far as what is happening in terms of the tragic scenes of people drowning in the Mediterranean, that is a result of the people traffickers who are engaged in those issues.

"But nobody can disagree with the idea that the failure of post-conflict planning has been responsible for some of the situation we have seen in Libya and, indeed, people then fleeing."

Responding to Mr Miliband's comments at a launch of the Conservatives' English manifesto , the PM said: "The people responsible for the tragedy in the Mediterranean are the criminal gangs and the traffickers who are applying this evil trade.

"And that is why I went to Brussels yesterday and offered the flagship of the Royal Navy, cutters, extra boats to help, all the intelligence and security information that we have working with our partners, to put an end to this evil trade.

"That is what we should do.

"As for Mr Miliband's remarks, as I have said what matters is strength consistency and clarity on these issues, which is what this government has delivered.

"His remarks are ill-judged and people will make their own views and determinations about that."

Mr Clegg said it was "pretty distasteful to reduce this total human tragedy, hundreds of people dying in the Mediterranean, to a political point-scoring blame game".

He added: "All I would plead for is a little less finger-pointing wisdom from Ed Miliband - when he supported the intervention in the first place - and a little bit more adherence to facts about exactly who is ending up on these boats, why they are and what we can now do about it to stop this terrible tragedy."

Addressing the UN Security Council on the Syrian conflict, Angelina Jolie touched upon the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, where hundreds of people have drowned at sea after attempting to flee the country.

The actress, who is a long-serving special envoy to the UN, said: "It is sickening to see thousands of refugees drowning on the doorstep of the world's wealthiest continent.

"No one risks the lives of their children in this way except out of utter desperation."

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In his speech, Mr Miliband also said Labour "will never put our national interest at risk by threatening to leave" the EU.

"Britain’s future lies inside - not outside - a European Union," he said.

The Tory promise of an in/out referendum was "a grave threat to Britain's position in the world", Mr Miliband argued as he highlighted the review being carried out by HSBC into the location of its London headquarters.

Criticising Mr Cameron's position, the Labour leader said: "He has taken us to the edge of European exit because he was too weak to control his own party and too anxious about the rise of UKIP, which he should have challenged instead of pandering to."