A Tory MP has been criticised for saying asylum-seeking children who have gone missing from Home Office hotels “shouldn’t have come here illegally” in a heckle at prime minister’s questions.
A total of 200 children are still missing from the hotels, the government revealed following claims that youngsters had been abducted off the street outside one Brighton hotel.
During prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Labour MP Tulip Siddiq asked Rishi Sunak: “Ministers have admitted that they no idea of the whereabouts of these children. Does he still think the UK is a safe haven for vulnerable children?”
Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis then heckled: “Well they shouldn’t have come here illegally”.
Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle, relayed the exchange on Twitter, saying: “Just when you think you’ve heard it all, the Tory Party find a new low.”
He told The Independent that the comments “fail to match the values of our nation”, adding: “Some of these children will almost certainly end up in criminal gangs if we fail to find and protect them - yet Jonathan Gullis seemed to suggest they have it coming.
“Gullis’ ignorance and stupidity has seeped into government policy, which is why communities are increasingly blighted by drugs and crime, and women and girls feel so unsafe.”
Mr Gullis defended his comments and told The Independent that “Labour’s open door approach to illegal migration shows they’re out of touch with the public.”
He said the party was “out of ideas on migration”, adding: “I fully support the prime minister in stopping migrants claiming asylum who have entered the UK illegally, deporting them to safe third world countries like Rwanda instead, and smash apart the vile smuggling gangs.”
Anti-fascist campaign group Hope Not Hate reacted to his comments, saying: “We are shocked and dismayed that Jonathan Gullis MP has today used the disappearance of 200 unaccompanied migrant children to try and score a political point during PMQs.
“It is gravely concerning that separated children seeking asylum are going missing, suspected of being trafficked and criminally exploited. MPs should be working to find solutions - not making shock factor statements in the house.”
Robert Jenrick, minister for immigration, told the Commons on Tuesday that the government were working with local authorities to track down the missing children, but MPs raised concerns that “nothing is happening” to find those being kidnapped by gangs.
More than 4,600 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been housed in hotels since July 2021, but 440 have gone missing during that time, Mr Jenrick revealed.
Some 200 children are still unaccounted for, and around 88 per cent of those are of Albanian origin.
SNP Commons leader Deidre Brock condemned the comments made by Tory former minister Mr Gullis as “a new low in dehumanising language”.
She said: “A member on the benches opposite who is clearly bent on establishing himself as some kind of Conservative party pound shop (Nigel) Farage reportedly shouted something really loathsome yesterday at PMQs about the 200 asylum-seeking children that are allegedly missing.
“It was so despicable I won’t repeat it, but its content must be known to her through the outrage on social media. Will she join me in condemning his remarks, which by victim blaming potentially 200 missing vulnerable children, marks a new low in dehumanising language towards asylum seekers?
“We all know behaviour in this place can be raucous, and passionate, and emotions sometimes run very high, but surely all of us would join in deploring attacking language being used on the poor and defenceless among us.”
