TORY leader Michael Howard has sparked a political row after announcing he is to visit Burnley to lay out his views on race relations and asylum seekers.

The former Home Secretary, himself the son of Eastern European immigrants, will visit the town on Thursday as part of a three-day tour of the North West.

He plans to use his visit, three years after the race riots, to announce a new immigration policy and give his views on race relations.

But local politicians from the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties have condemned the visit as a publicity stunt.

Mr Howard is expected to make a keynote speech in Burnley arguing that a balance between consistent asylum rules and the controlled immigration of workers with skills needed by Britain is the route to harmonious race relations.

But he will also put an emphasis on the importance of Britain's ethnic communities being made to feel welcome in this country.

Coun Peter Doyle, leader of the Conservative group on Burnley Council, is co-ordinating the visit.

He said: "I think it's excellent that Michael Howard is coming to Burnley which is something Tony Blair has failed to do since the troubles.

"I think race relations and asylum seekers are both important issues for Burnley and hopefully this will make a contribution to the situation.

"We are looking to field a full slate of candidates at the next local elections and this visit can only help us in winning support locally."

Coun Gordon Birtwistle, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he was surprised Mr Howard knew where Burnley was.

He added: "It's a shame it needs the town to have problems to persuade him to come.

"It's a publicity stunt. I'm sure he's trying to show himself as the caring Conservative who's trying to show he cares about what goes on in this country.

"But why does he come three years after it happened, and why does he come because of that? We have enough other problems.

"It's good to know the Conservatives are interested in race relations but I don't think they have any policies to resolve the problems.

"It's a visit Tony Blair has never made and I hope he will be speaking in public. The Conservatives are a complete and utter nonentity in this area but I would be interested to hear what he's got to say."

Labour council leader Stuart Caddy said he was "dumbfounded" about the reasons for Mr Howard's visit.

He said: "If he wants to speak to me or anybody from the council we will be happy to speak to him about the issues in Burnley.

"The Conservative vote in Burnley has absolutely collapsed over the past two years.

"We have had a taskforce report and the Denham report all around community cohesion and race relations and it will be interesting to find out what's behind Mr Howard's decision to come here now.

"It's unkind to criticise Tony Blair for not speaking here with the situation he has been involved in but we have had a lot of visits from Labour ministers and John Prescott has been here three times."

The Conservative candidate for Burnley, Robert Frost, was defeated by Peter Pike in the 2001 general election by 10,498 votes.

The party has three serving councillors in Burnley, compared to 23 Labour, nine Liberal Democrat, six BNP and three independent representatives.

Burnley MP Peter Pike said: "I think immigration and race is a very difficult subject to tackle in this town. He will have to be somewhat careful in what he says."

Conservative Central Office confirmed that Mr Howard had chosen to give the speech in Burnley because, following the riots and the election of BNP councillors, it was a place where race relations were seen as a major issue.