Prime Minister accused of treating Rochdale with contempt over asylum seekers

The Prime Minister has refused to act on the growing number of asylum seekers being housed in Rochdale.

The Prime minister was speaking in response to being challenged on the issue by Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk who has been campaigning for a fairer system of distributing asylum seekers around the country.

Mr Danczuk pointed out that there were currently 880 asylum seekers in Rochdale, compared to none in the Prime Minister’s own constituency in West Oxfordshire.

In fact the number in Rochdale is nearly double the amount in the entire South East of England, where there are just 446 asylum seekers.

Mr Danczuk challenged the Prime Minister on the unfair distribution and the challenges this was caused for public services in Rochdale.

Mr Danczuk said: “We are all proud of the assistance that this country offers to those in need, but public services in Rochdale are already stretched and this uneven dispersal of asylum seekers is not helping the situation. Does the Prime Minister accept that this is not fair on Rochdale, and what does he plan to do about it?”

Despite the evidence, the Prime Minister tried to shift the blame onto the last Labour Government.

He said “we inherited was completely unacceptable” and that the legislation covering asylum seekers was put in place under the last Labour Government.

Speaking after the debate, Mr Danczuk was frustrated that the Prime Minister would not take responsibility for what had happened on his watch.

Mr Danczuk said: “For the Prime Minister to try to blame the last Labour Government is absolutely ridiculous. The number of asylum seekers in the country has gone up not down since 2010, and the number in Rochdale has more than doubled.

"Just in the last quarter we have seen an extra 200 people moved here from elsewhere in the country. It is just not acceptable and the Prime Minister needs to take responsibility for the actions of his Government. The truth is that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats don’t care about towns like Rochdale and simply see them as dumping grounds for asylum seekers. We can’t go on taking more people whilst the Government continues to slash budgets for public services.

"The Prime Minister has had five years to sort this out, but the situation has only got worse, this latest abdication of responsibility is exactly what the public have come to expect from a Government which has treated them with contempt.”