Christian Wakeford, Labour MP for Bury South, has apologised for comments made about asylum seekers where he described them as having a "shopping trolley as to what they want as economic migrants" when he was a Conservative MP. This is after two of his Bury constituents who shared their experiences as asylum seekers, Mr Wakeford said, showing his that he was "wrong" to make those comments.
While a Conservative MP in July last year he said: "Asylum seekers aren’t just travelling through one safe country, they’re very often travelling through many safe countries – essentially having a shopping trolley as to what they want, economic migration."
The comments came during a debate in which he backed the nationality and border bill. In another Westminster Hall debate this morning (December 14) on asylum seeker employment and the cost of living crisis, he echoed his constituents experiences being able to gain employment while seeking asylum in the UK, and apologised specifically for these comments.
He said: "I want to go on record here and say that it is important to admit when you are wrong. My meetings with Mary and others have shown me that I was wrong, and I am sorry for that."
He added: "Every week, the Government use scapegoats, and as we continued to see even yesterday in the Prime Minister’s statement, asylum seekers have been one for this Government for far too long. I am sorry for playing my part in that narrative as well.
"These people are not arbitrary numbers for newspaper editors to froth at the mouth about, or to stoke the fire of intolerance. They are human beings, and we all need to remember that."
Mr Wakeford went on to criticise the law that prohibits asylum seekers from working, especially during the current cost of living crisis. He said that those who have fled persecution are "forced to rely on" £5.84 a day while they wait for a decision on their asylum claim, an amount he described as "miserly".
He therefore called on this ban to be lifted, saying there are "moral and ethical reasons why that would be the right thing to do". He concluded: "We need an asylum system based on compassion. I hope the Minister has listened closely to the body of supportive evidence and takes heed of it. Human beings all need support at some point. Please do not leave these people behind."
This came after he quoted two residents, a woman who fled persecution in Kenya five-years-ago, Mary, and Mahmoud, who fled Sierra Leone in 2020. Mary told Mr Wakeford in August: "Not being able to work really affected my mental health. It felt demeaning for me especially being a parent and not being able to fully provide for my child. Most days, I was confined in the house, dealing with devastation and a lot of stress. There were days my daughter had to miss school when it was non-uniform days."
This debate came as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced a plan yesterday to clear a backlog of up to 100,000 asylum seekers by the end of next year and as four people are reported to have died trying to cross the English Channel in a small boat.
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