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Home secretary David Blunkett is considering backing down on controversial plans to create a single tier of appeal for asylum seekers after they were heavily criticised by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf last week.

Blunkett told a Sunday newspaper that the government was willing to listen to alternative proposals that involved the courts as long as they did not allow asylum seekers to launch multiple appeals.

In a stinging attack on ministers, Lord Woolf joined the chorus of criticism about the plans to strip away the right to challenge asylum decisions in the courts, arguing that parts of the Asylum and Immigration Bill were "fundamentally in conflict with the rule of law and should not be contemplated by any government if it had respect for the rule of law".


Taking away the right of appeal to the courts threatened "a blot on the reputation of the government and to undermine its attempts to be a champion of the rule of law overseas," Lord Woolf said.

He said ministers had made unsatisfactory attempts to justify the measure, but their sole concession to judges' concerns had been to promise failed asylum seekers the right to ask for an internal review.

The government's desire to speed the asylum process had already been satisfied in the Nationality, Asylum and Immigration Act 2002, which enabled the High Court to review cases in weeks rather than months, Lord Woolf added.


He also suggested that removing the protection of the courts from one group of people could lead to others being denied it in the future.

Lord Woolf said the clause could lead to clashes between parliament, the courts and the government and could fuel a campaign for a written constitution. He predicted that it would receive "short shrift" in the House of Lords.

Despite a revolt by 36 Labour MPs and a joint campaign by the British Association of Social Workers and the Refugee Children's Consortium, the bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons last week.