CONGLETON MP Ann Winterton has issued a controversial statement on terrorism in which she says she is thankful the UK is still "a predominantly white, Christian country,"

The statement comes in an attack on what Mrs Winterton calls "Tony Blair's banana republic" in which she claims thousands of illegal immigrants are being waved into the UK with no checks on whether they are criminals or potential terrorists.

In the statement, sent to the Congleton Guardian as part of a personal column for the newspaper, Mrs Winterton writes: "We live in times of tremendous change but the United Kingdom is still, thankfully, a predominantly white, Christian country. Some might say we are paying the price for the so-called benefits of the multi-cultural society we keep hearing about, the product of almost uncontrolled immigration and the abuse of asylum.

"Before disappearing on his month's holiday away from bombed London the Prime Minister gave a speech about getting tough on terrorism.

"It fooled no-one. In his banana republic called Britain, we have been as weak on terrorism and terrorists as he is on crime and criminals.

"Understandable outrage has been expressed about the reluctance of the authorities to combat the blatant agitation by Muslim extremists in this country.

"We have now paid a high price for this inactivity."

She said the "quiet, unshakeable love of country" which motivated the men and women who made VE Day and VJ Day a reality 60 years ago had all but withered.

"The young have mostly been brought up to despise such feelings as jingoism and nationalism," she said.

"Many young people are condemned to an empty, brutish existence by a materialistic and atheistic culture in which there is little or no sense of duty and service, least of all to society and the nation."

* Mrs Winterton's column in full can be read below this story in the news section on this website