Go Home Vans 'Not Particularly Positive Experience' Says Sayeeda Warsi

Tory Communities Minister Attacks 'Go Home' Vans
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The government's controversial 'go home' immigration campaign has been criticised - by the Tory communities minister.

Sayeeda Warsi put the boot into Home Secretary Theresa May when she said the tough tactics had not been "a particularly positive experience" and added that she was glad it had been ditched.

The Home Office faced fierce criticism when the vans were spotted around diverse parts of London, and it was branded the '#racistvan' on Twitter.

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You won't be seeing this driving around

After just one person was deported as a result, after allegedly spotting a picture of the van in The Guardian, plans to roll it out across the country were shelved.

But Baroness Warsi was far from convinced when she appeared on Sky News on Sunday morning.

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Warsi is the Conservative communities minister

She told Dermot Murnaghan: "I don't think it was a particularly positive experience and I am glad that we won't be going back to it."

She went on: "I think it's always important for government to be clear when they are speaking to their communities that all people who are part of this nation legally are absolutely welcome.

"If there's anything we do in our policies which doesn't entirely make clear that distinction between people who are very much part of the fabric of this society and those people who are here illegally and should not be here - anything that causes that confusion we should think long and hard about."

Speaking earlier this month, a Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Secretary has seen an interim evaluation and has not been convinced by the results. As such, there will be no further roll-out."

The campaign was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) earlier this month for using misleading arrest statistics, but cleared over complaints that it was offensive and irresponsible.