ALISON Thewliss shot down an angry audience member on Question Time with three words after he alleged "rapists and murderers" were coming across the Channel in small boats.
The man went on a rant to the SNP's shadow chancellor asking her where she was "going to put" hundreds of migrants who had made their way across the Channel to UK shores in recent days.
After she responded to his question, he then went on to suggest she was "allowing rapists in" and "didn't know who they were".
But as his eyes grew wider, Thewliss calmly hit back with "neither do you".
Presenter Fiona Bruce clarified that 71% of applications, according to the Refugee Council, were granted asylum or protection at the initial decision stage.
The comments were made during a discussion on the UK Government's attempts to fly migrants to Rwanda on Tuesday, with the flight eventually cancelled minutes before take-off following a late intervention from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
The audience member said: "Women and children very rarely come across, it’s middle-aged men under 40. They’re coming mainly when they’re crossing from Calais, they’re coming from a country that’s not at war.
"They’ve come through seven or eight different countries to get here to come across and my question to the SNP person is, there were 600 of these people in the last two days, where are you going to put them?"
Thewliss replied: "In my constituency, Glasgow Central, we’ve got the highest immigration caseload in Scotland. We’ve been the main resettlement place in Scotland for people.
"Every single Scottish local authority took people as part of the Syrian scheme because that was a good, funded scheme.
"What happens in the Home Office just now, the reason that people are being put in hotels, is because the Home Office has underinvested in its staff.
"They can’t process the claims that people are making and they are stuck waiting in limbo for ages.
"If that wasn’t the case people could get on with their lives. Instead, people are being put up in hotels rather than be allowed to move on with their lives."
The audience member then said: "They could be rapists, murderers, you don’t know who they are."
Thewliss replied: "And neither do you."
The man then spoke over applause from the crowd saying: "They don’t even have documents. You’re allowing rapists in."
The UK Government has said it will arrange another flight to Rwanda and insists the scheme will discourage people from crossing the English Channel.
The policy - a five-year trial - is aimed at people who arrive in the UK through what the government calls "illegal, dangerous or unnecessary methods" when they could have claimed asylum in another safe country, such as France.
Charities and lawyers representing asylum seekers launched a series of legal challenges against the policy. Critics questioned whether Rwanda is a safe destination and argue the scheme breaks the European Convention on Human Rights.
This led to some individuals being removed from the flight but it was then halted altogether by the ECtHR, which is part of the Council of Europe and still counts the UK as a member.
