PM urged to personally sell asylum message Labor MP Laurie Ferguson (R) says his party risks losing the asylum-seeker debate to the Liberals. PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has been urged by one of her strongest supporters to do a better job selling her party's asylum seeker policies or risk losing the debate to the Liberals. Government MP Laurie Ferguson reportedly told Ms Gillard in a caucus meeting on Tuesday Labor would be "dead" in western Sydney seats if she didn't personally take up the public debate on asylum seeker policies. His warning comes after a Newspoll, published in The Australian, showed the coalition's lead over the government increasing to 16 points. If the 58-42 per cent opinion poll result was repeated at the September 14 election, Labor's representation in parliament would be nearly halved to 37 seats. Mr Ferguson, who is one of Ms Gillard's strongest supporters, says Labor can recover "very strongly" in western Sydney if the prime minister personally engages with the electorate on boats. "I believe this message is far more central than people might think," Mr Ferguson told reporters in Canberra. Mr Ferguson said asylum seeker policy was a major concern for people in his western Sydney electorate. "I want to emphasise this is not just racist rednecks (who are concerned with asylum boats)," he told ABC television. These are Muslims, these are Buddhists, these are people from Malaysia, these are people from Bangladesh who convey this to me. He said Labor had not successfully explained to the electorate how difficult it was to manage refugee policies. Ms Ferguson said Ms Gillard was the best person to lead Labor into the September election, particularly on the area of asylum seekers. "I think that Julia Gillard is one person that people know she's a tough nut," he said.