A Conservative MP has instructed his staff to no longer deal with asylum cases, saying he wants to prioritise his “limited resources”.
Marco Longhi faced shouts of “resign” and “shameful” as he raised the matter in the House of Commons at business questions.
The MP for Dudley North said: “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.
“Can we have a debate on the pressure that asylum seekers are putting on our nation’s resources and on our local services?”
Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt replied: “The honourable gentleman raises a specific point, which I could generalise from because our approach to this issue has been to recognise that we have finite resources and we want to be able to direct them in the most efficient and effective way possible.
“That’s why we have to control our borders, that’s what the British people want – they want a Government to be able to control access of foreign nationals to the UK.
“As well as border control, we have been reforming the processes at the Home Office.
“He will know that we’ve had a speed-up of looking at cases, by now I think close to 300%, and we are cracking through that backlog.”
Ms Mordaunt said the Government “will get on top of it”, adding: “We need to continue that progress to make sure that the systems we have in place are not piling pressure onto local services, whether it’s education, healthcare or whether it’s the services the honourable gentleman offers in his office.”
MPs are expected to represent the interests and concerns of all those people who live in their constituency, although there is no legal requirement for them to take on a particular case or not.
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