Claims that Iain Duncan Smith's tough stance on asylum seekers is causing a Tory rift have been dismissed as "unadulterated rubbish".

The Conservative leader said on Friday that none of the 1,300 refugees at Sangatte in France should be allowed to set foot in Britain.

His surprise comments were seen in sharp contrast to the Tories' recent attempts to present a more caring image - and led to speculation that not all of the party was behind him on the issue.

But shadow home secretary - one of the main architects of the caring-sharing Tory approach - has rubbished the claims.

We need a sensible co-operative arrangement about how we distribute the burden fairly across Europe

Oliver Letwin

He told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "The whole of this area is fraught with dangers but the idea that there is a disagreement between is us unadulterated rubbish."

He laughed off an attack by former Tory Party chairman Lord Tebbit, who branded him a "Hampstead liberal" and said that Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett would make a better Conservative home affairs spokesman.

"I suspect David Blunkett might not agree to become shadow home secretary," Mr Letwin commented.

Policing borders

Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Duncan Smith had claimed the asylum system had buckled under the strain of new applicants and the Red Cross centre at Sangatte had become a "staging post for people waiting to break the law and enter the UK illegally".

Duncan Smith's tough stance surprised some

Mr Letwin said there needed to be greater co-operation within the European Union in tackling the problem of asylum seekers, although he did not explicitly call for a common asylum policy, as Labour is demanding.

"I rather agree this is an area where European countries can profitably co-operate," he said.

"It would be much the best thing if we could all get together and agree how we police the outer borders and have a sensible co-operative arrangement about how we distribute the burden fairly."

Ultimately, the way to address problem of economic migration was to reduce the imbalances between the rich and poor countries of the world, he added.