A Tory minister has been heckled over his party's policy on detaining migrants at one of the last set-piece events before the General Election.

 

Sajid Javid, the Culture Secretary, was standing in for David Cameron at the rally organised by community charity Citizens UK.

He came under fire as he defended Conservative policy of indefinite detention, saying that a Tory government would not commit to an "arbitrary" time.

That prompted an angry outburst from the hall as one member of audience shouted "it's time..." a reference to the Citizens UK call for a time limit on detentions.

Mr Javid was also tackled onstage about the issue by a former refugee from war-torn Bosnia.

Zrinka Bralo, from West London, told the minister that when she first came to the UK she used to sleep with a bottle of acid beside her so that attackers "would not rape me but kill me first".

She went on: "When I came here we detained 800 people, last year we detained 30,000...

"Would you not agree on a personal level that we need to sort this out?"

Mr Javid said that a "sense of fairness" must be at the heart of the immigration system, adding: "A time limit would be arbitrary and it would take no account of individual circumstances as it would serve only to encourage individuals to delay and frustrate the (process)."

Aides to Mr Javid later described the question from Ms Bralo as "really unfair".

Later Mr Miliband told the same crowd: "The government I lead will end the indefinite detention of people.

"We will also end the detention of pregnant women and victims of human trafficking."

Mr Javid also apologised for David Cameron's no-show at the event.

Mr Cameron was the only one of the three major UK party leader not to address the event, also attended by Mr Miliband and Lib Dem leader NIck Clegg.

The Culture Secretary said that he was sorry that the Prime Minister could not attend.

During the 2010 general election the Citizens UK's assembly was dubbed the "fourth debate" when Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg and Gordon Brown all addressed the membership days after the final televised debate.

Mr Javid, widely touted as a possible future Tory leadership candidate, said: "I'm sorry that David Cameron can't be here today.

"It's a privilege for me to attend and represent him and the Conservative Party and to have this honour to speak to you, members of the assembly."

Pressed repeatedly to give a yes or no answer on whether a future Tory PM would attend in the run up to any election in 2020, Mr Javid replied: "I can't give you a yes or no answer.

"We will make sure that the right people, the right minister, which includes the prime minister, or any other kind of minister... "I will help you in any way that I can."

The event saw more than 2,200 voters get the chance to grill the party leaders on what they plan to do to improve social justice.

In an impassioned speech Mr Miliband told the crowd: "Your fight is my fight. Your struggle is my struggle. Your vision is my vision.

"Let's put working people first. Let's change the country together."

An atheist Mr Miliband added that while he did not have a faith: "I believe in a faith, I believe in a faith I learnt from my parents. They were refugees persecuted by the Nazis.

"The experience taught them about adversity and how to overcome it.

"And, they taught me. They taught me that when you see an injustice, you shouldn't just get angry, you should do something about it.

"My faith is not a religious faith, but many people who have a religious faith will recognise it. It's a faith that says that good people can overcome injustice.

"It's a faith that tells me change is made, not simply by politicians, not mainly by politicians but by people, people who come together and, above all, it's a faith that tells me we don't only look to those at the top of society for solutions but we can find wisdom and strength from the people all around us."

Five years ago the event was notable for a passionate speech by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown., following a difficult and and gaffe-prone campaign.

At the time the then Labour leader was visibly buoyed by his appearance and told the audience: "You have given me heart today and you have inspired me by the way you are dealing with the important causes of our time."