Government warned of asylum boost to BNP
The government’s controversial tough stance on asylum-seekers could boost the BNP by encouraging voters to think “xenophobic” parties can be trusted, a Labour MP has warned.
In a strong criticism of the Home Office, Michael Connarty, MP for Falkirk East, told the BBC’s “Good Morning Scotland” that there were “serious problems” with the government’s immigration policies.
The MP attacked the Home Office for ignoring repeated calls to end the detention of children in centres such as Dungavel in Lanarkshire, which holds failed asylum-seekers before they are deported and whose capacity is to be expanded, the government revealed this week.
Attempting to appeal to the electorate by proving tough on immigrants is a practice also used by political parties including the BNP, Mr Connarty pointed out.
The government risks encouraging people to “think that being anti-immigrant, anti-asylum seeker is a good thing”, he told the programme.
“What we are generating is, aside from xenophobia… fanning the flame of the British National Party.”
The Home Office has failed to mollify churches and teachers’ unions in Scotland with measures to improve the welfare of children in detention at asylum centres, and is facing mounting calls for an immediate end to the practice.
