Ashfield MP accused of lying over claims homeless booted out of hotels to make way for immigrants

Lee Anderson, Conservative MP for Ashfield, made the comments when he confronted Home Secretary Suella Braverman about immigrants in parliament earlier this week.

He asked: “What do I say to the people in Ashfield who say to me ‘this is absolutely ridiculous, we’ve got hardworking, taxpaying people in Ashfield paying their rates, paying their taxes, helping to look after our own homeless people and put them in local hotels, but now they’ve been turfed out to put people in who quite frankly have been trafficked, they’ve got no right to be here and some of them are criminals?’

“Please tell me what I say to them.”

He then went on to tell GB News he was “embarrassed” by the situation.

He said: “It’s an absolute scandal, I’m embarassed. We’ve got people in Ashfield who’ve been turfed out of a hotel for homeless people and we’ve got the illegals stopping there. What can I say to my constituents other than we’re sorry, we’ve let you down and we should be ashamed of ourselves.”

However, Coun David Hennigan, Ashfield Council member for Sutton Central and New Cross, has accused the MP of making false claims in order to ‘whip up hatred’.

He said: “He is literally making things up in a grubby attempt to whip up hatred. I can confirm not one homeless person from Ashfield has been evicted from a hotel to make way for immigrants. Not one.

“Mr Anderson is becoming increasingly desperate to hold his seat and will literally say anything to stay relevant.”

And Paul Parkinson, council director of housing, said: “As far as I am aware, no homeless person placed by the council in a hotel has been asked to leave to make way for asylum-seekers.”

Mr Anderson has since defended his comments, claiming to have been personally contacted by a number of homeless residents, and called Coun Hennigan’s accusations “petty”.

He said: “Coun Hennigan needs to concentrate his efforts on his colleagues who were hauled in by Nottinghamshire Police last week, rather than getting into petty squabbles with an MP who’s actually got some serious work to do.”