Over 700 people died last week when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has accused Labour of being ‘distasteful’ for making claims that the current migrant crisis in Libya is a direct result of actions by the coalition government.
The row has occurred after a speech by Ed Miliband suggests that the Mediterranean migrant crisis which has caused over 700 deaths is “in part a direct result” of the coalition government’s intervention against the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Clegg said he believes that the recent disaster shouldn’t be used to create a “political point scoring blame game”. He said: “A considerable amount of thought went in by the international community.”
However he went on to say: “It is legitimate to say things spiral in directions you can’t fully predict.”
Ed Miliband, today speaking at Chatham House think tank, made no direct link in his foreign affairs speech though insisted he was raising an important point. He said: “The refugee crisis and tragic scenes this week are in part a direct result of the failure of post-conflict planning in Libya.”
Conservative leader David Cameron later spoke out about the comments, believing them to be “ill judged comments” and that the public would reach “their own conclusions” about them.
Ed Miliband returned the blame to Cameron stating: “The only people trying to whip up a storm about this are the Conservative Party.”
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