CONTROVERSIAL posters advising illegal immigrants to "go home" may still be used despite the Coalition Government's decision to scrap vans carrying the same message.
The Home Office said that the two schemes were entirely separate and the impact of the signs, which were on display in immigration centres including in Glasgow, was still "being evaluated". But last night the Liberal Democrat end of the Coalition vowed that there would be no repeat of the posters on its watch.
Yesterday, Home Secretary Theresa May admitted that the vans, which toured London for two weeks this summer, had been "too blunt an instrument".
The vehicles, which warned illegal immigrants to "go home or face arrest", led to just one person agreeing to leave the UK, although ministers insist this is enough to justify the cost of the scheme.
Separately, posters were on display in UK Border Agency offices in Glasgow and London, containing a similar message. They read: "Is life here hard? Going home is simple", and added: "Ask about going home."
A Home Office spokesman said that yesterday's announcement did not apply to the posters, adding: "The results of that pilot will be evaluated."
A LibDem source said the results had yet to be analysed because the posters scheme had started later than the vans pilot. However, he said the party's position on the issue "still stands". In September then Scottish Secretary Michael Moore pledged there would be no repeat of the posters, which he said many Scots had viewed as "deeply distasteful".
Last night, Yvette Cooper, Labour's shadow home secretary, called on Mrs May to apologise. "She signed off the vans, the slogans and the funding, and she has defended them for months," she said. "Yet everyone else could see from the start these would be ineffective and divisive."
SNP MP Pete Wishart, who campaigned against the controversial use of the vans and held a Westminster debate on the issue, said the Coalition should also abandon the 'go home' materials in the Glasgow UKBA office.
"This grates against our sense of community and what we are trying to achieve on positive race relations. There is no place for this in Scotland."
The row emerged as Labour MP Pamela Nash warned that a crackdown on "health tourism" in England could lead to people moving to Scotland.
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