RISHI Sunak has been directly urged to step in after one of his Conservative ministers made “demonstrably false” statements to parliament.
It comes after Robert Jenrick, an immigration minister in the Home Office, told MPs that the SNP government “does not house refugees in Scotland”.
Doubling down, Jenrick also told Westminster: “If [SNP MPs] cared about this issue, they would welcome asylum seekers into their own part of the UK, but they do not.”
According to the Home Office’s own figures, more asylum seekers per 10,000 people are currently dispersed in Glasgow than anywhere else in the UK, and in 2020-2021 Scotland took around 13% of all refugees, above its UK population share of around 8%.
The ministerial code, of which the Prime Minister is the arbiter, makes clear that deliberately misleading the Commons is a resignation offence. It says that an “inadvertent error” must be corrected on the record “at the earliest opportunity”.
The SNP’s home affairs spokesperson, Alison Thewliss, has now written to Sunak asking him to take action against his Government minister.
“Mr Jenrick made the claim that no refugees are housed in Scotland, and a further claim that no asylum seekers are housed in Scotland,” Thewliss said. “Given the opportunity to correct this demonstrably false statement on the record, he declined. This conduct is of the utmost seriousness.”
Thewliss (below) quoted figures such as that Scotland has “taken in 20% of all Ukrainian arrivals under the Homes for Ukraine scheme” and that, by early 2020, the country had welcomed more than 3500 individuals to all 32 of Scotland’s local authority areas after the crisis in Syria.
The SNP MP wrote: “Mr Jenrick’s conduct has not only breached the ministerial code, but caused great offence to communities in Scotland … “I urge you to consider the Minister’s position.”
Owen Thompson, the SNP MP for Midlothian, said he had previously had to take action to ensure that the official record was corrected after an incorrect statement from Jenrick.
Thompson said: “In May, I had to make a point of order after Mr Jenrick yet again mangled the facts and suggested Midlothian had turned its back on asylum seekers.
“This could not be further from the truth. Mr Jenrick wrongly suggested it was my responsibility that no asylum seekers, through the dispersal scheme, had been housed in Midlothian.
“I was in fact informed by the Home Office on February 22 of their intention to house asylum seekers in my Midlothian constituency – but then on March 1, the Home Office further notified me they no longer intended to proceed with that dispersal.
“If the Home Office were to engage with local authorities, local councils or the Scottish Government, these sorts of issues could be dealt with. I had to ask the Deputy Speaker to ensure that the record was corrected to remove this slur.”
The Home Office, which has refused to engage on the issue of Jenrick’s statements when previously approached by The National, has again been asked for comment.
Downing Street, which has also not responded to communications on Jenrick’s claims in the Commons, has also been re-approached.
On Tuesday, FullFact analysed Jenrick’s claims to the Commons. The fact-checking service wrote: “The Home Office declined to comment directly on what Mr Jenrick meant … but if he was referring to the number of refugees or asylum seekers being housed in Scotland, where the SNP has been in government since 2011, this clearly isn’t true.”
On Monday, SNP MP Chris Stephens asked Jenrick if he would correct the record after having “given factually wrong information to this House three times”.
Stephens was also including a list, that Jenrick read to parliament earlier in the session, of local authorities in Scotland and the number of asylum seekers they house.
The Tory minister had said: “Clackmannanshire, zero asylum seekers; Dundee, zero asylum seekers; East Ayrshire, zero; East Dunbartonshire, zero; Midlothian, zero; North Ayrshire – want to take a guess, Mr Speaker? – zero; North Lanarkshire, six …”
The Speaker cut Jenrick off at the end, meaning Stephens may not have heard Jenrick say “six” for North Lanarkshire.
The SNP MP later challenged Jenrick: “North Lanarkshire Council houses not just asylum seekers but refugees. The Immigration Minister has now given factually wrong information to this House three times.
“When will he apologise to the House, and will he come back to it to give proper information?”
Responding, Jenrick said: “I do not think I have given factually wrong information.
“They may not be the facts the honourable gentleman wants to hear, but they are the facts.
“I did not mention North Lanarkshire, but there are six asylum seekers there.”
