CONGLETON MP Ann Winterton claims that local people do not know who is walking the streets of their town.

Mrs Winterton's comment came as she called for radical changes to the asylum system in the UK.

She urged the government to take action to secure the UK's borders at this time of heightened international tension.

She also set out a series of proposals to improve the UK's asylum system in the long term.

"It is the first duty of any government to protect the public," she said.

"It seems increasingly clear that we no longer know who is walking the streets of our towns and cities such as Congleton and Manchester.

"The government must take immediate action to introduce 24-hour-a-day monitoring of all ports of entry, and should ensure no person is allowed to remain in the UK until they have been properly vetted by the security services."

The UK needed a safer and fairer asylum system in the long term, she added, where the genuine refugee was helped and the imposter was not.

The next Conservative government would introduce small one-stop accommodation centres for all new arrivals in the UK, she said, so their applications could be processed quickly and efficiently.

"The Conservative Opposition is also looking again at the international conventions relating to asylum," she said.

"It is clearly absurd that the United Kingdom should have to grant refugee status to people such as Taliban fighters who have recently been trying to kill our own troops."