On the day, Local Government Minister Phil Woolas said the government would consider some proposals.

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Mr Besson is due to meet his British counterpart, Phil Woolas, in the UK in February.

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Immigration minister Phil Woolas recently admitted that the student visa system is "the major loophole in Britain's border controls".

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The family's MP, Immigration Minister Phil Woolas, said the family was being supported by the authorities in both the UK and Pakistan.

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The Daily Mirror's assertion that the affair was common knowledge in Mr Prescott's department was dismissed by local government minister Phil Woolas.

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At the general election Labour's Phil Woolas got 31.9% of votes and Lib Dem Elwyn Watkins 31.6%, with Conservative Mr Ali getting 26.4%.

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Immigration minister Phil Woolas told the BBC that secret British intelligence and intelligence from other countries was also being used "in a targeted way".

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The election court found that former Labour minister Phil Woolas had made false statements about his Liberal Democrat opponent Elwyn Watkins and invalidated the poll outcome.

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Earlier, Immigration Minister Phil Woolas told MPs on the European Scrutiny Committee the "best estimate" of numbers of workers from the 10 newest countries to join the European Union was a prediction of 665, 000 for next month - 550, 000 more than when they joined the EU in May 2004.

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