The British Conservative party has announced plans to tighten restrictions on the Travelling community.
Conservative leader Michael Howard said the measures would stop illegal camps and unauthorised developments, claiming Travellers were bending the planning laws to set up settlements wherever they liked.
With a general election expected on May 5th, Mr Howard hopes his tough proposals could be a vote winner, particularly in some rural communities where Traveller sites are a sensitive issue.
"If you want to build a new home you have to get planning permission first," Mr Howard said in a newspaper advert.
"But if you are a Traveller you can bend planning law - building where you like thanks to the Human Rights Act. It's not fair that there's one rule for Travellers and another for everyone else."
Traveller groups estimate the number of nomadic travellers in England and Wales to be between 90,000 120,000.
They argue that it was the-then Conservative government's decision to change the law in 1994, releasing local authorities from the obligation to provide Traveller sites, that has forced about 30 per cent of Travellers to live in unauthorised camps.
Political opponents accuse the Conservatives of cynically exploiting public concern.
Mr Keith Hill, planning minister for the Labour government, said the Tories were "tapping into the biggest vein of bigotry - prejudice against gypsies and Travellers".
Mr Howard denied accusations of racism, saying the Conservatives accepted that the "vast majority" of Travellers acted responsibly but "a small minority" did not.