“I, for one, want to dedicate my resources to putting Dudley people first,” said the MP.
Marco Longhi, the Conservative MP for Dudley North, has come under criticism for saying he has instructed staff not to deal with asylum seeker cases.
Speaking to the House of Commons, Longhi said that he wanted to “put the people of Dudley first.”
“I have stopped the large number of so-called asylum seekers from attending my surgeries and I have instructed my office to not deal with asylum cases for two reasons.
“As MPs, we have zero authority, zero mandate or influence over Home Office decisions. We have very limited resources and I, for one, want to dedicate my resources to putting Dudley people first,” said the MP.
He then asked: “Can we have a debate on the pressure that asylum seekers are putting on our nation’s resources and on our local services?”
The comments sparked fury among opposition MPs in the Commons, with calls of ‘resign’ and ‘shame’ being heard across the chamber.
While MPs are expected to represent the interests and concerns of all people living in their constituency, Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House, merely said that Longhi “raises a specific point.”
“We have finite resources and we have to direct them in a specific way. That is why we need to control our borders. That is what the British people want,” said Mordaunt.
In 2022, Marco Longhi was appointed as president of Turning Point UK. On its website, the group describes itself as “a right-wing Conservative activist and political organisation that aims to challenge the left leaning bias in our institutions and wider society: expose the far left and end the tyranny of woke ideology.”
On his appointment, Longhi tweeted: “Delighted to become President of Turning Point U.K. an activist organisation that promotes small gov’t, personal responsibility and free markets, while fighting the leftwing and woke ideologies pervading our educational and historical establishments and much of our public sector.”
As well as igniting outrage in the Commons, the MP’s comments about his refusal to help asylum seekers sparked disbelief online, with many alluding to the fact that Longhi is president of the right-wing pressure group.
“And they wonder why the Tory candidate in the West Midlands mayorals failed to get re-elected. Another compelling advert for Tory values,” said one reader.
“Tory MP announces in Commons he has banned asylum seeker cases from his surgery. A clear case of not representing constituents and one he needs to be reprimanded for – it won’t happen,” was another comment.
Another reader summed the story up in one word:
“Cruel.”
Image credit: Richard Townshend via Wikimedia Commons
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