Local MP Matt Vickers has slammed Stockton’s Labour Council for opening the doors to asylum seekers – with Home Office data showing 800 are now housed in Stockton.
Stockton's Labour Council volunteered Stockton to become an ‘Asylum Dispersal Authority’ taking asylum seekers when there was no need to. Stockton now has amongst the highest levels of asylum seekers per population in the entire country.
Over many years the town has taken a disproportionate number of asylum seekers, and there are now huge numbers of lone men found hanging around Stockton’s town centre. The situation is set to get worse because of record numbers of small boat crossings, with over 34,000 migrants having arrived since Labour came to power last summer.
The Labour Council Leader Lisa Evans has claimed that Stockton is a ‘rich, diverse population that contributes to our communities’, but residents have slammed Labour for being completely out of touch.
One resident asked, “Have you walked around the town centre and surrounding areas?”, whilst another called out “The level of Labour lies and distortion.”
Many of the asylum seekers are housed near to Stockton town centre, creating huge challenges for accommodation, public services, and integration.
Stockton’s Conservative MP Matt Vickers said
“Stockton's Labour Council were the ones who volunteered Stockton to become an ‘Asylum Dispersal Authority’ taking asylum seekers when we didn’t need to.
"Home Office Data shows 800 asylum seekers now housed in Stockton.
"What we see today is not a ‘rich, diverse population that contributes to our communities’ as Labour claim, but a run-down town centre, pressure on public services, lack of integration and anti-social behaviour."
In Westminster, Matt has been leading the charge against the Labour government’s ‘out-of-control’ asylum policy, and recently put forward proposals in Parliament to disapply the European Convention on Human Rights to immigration cases, ensuring swift deportation of illegal migrants.
