Covid-19: Support and Accommodation for Asylum Seekers

Stewart Malcolm McDonald Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Chris Philp]

My hon. Friend is right. The system is too slow. It is too slow to grant meritorious claims, but it is also, I am afraid to say, open to abuse with repeated unmeritorious appeals, which often drag the process out over many years. Reform is needed along the lines that he describes and it is something on which we are working.

[Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South) (SNP) [V]]

Those of us who represent Glasgow are utterly horrified at the Minister’s tone deaf remarks about how lovely these hotel rooms are. I ask him whether he could stay in one hotel room for several weeks during lockdown. I am afraid to say that the Government have been posted missing on the issue of asylum accommodation in Glasgow, which many of us in the city have been jumping up and down about for several months. What is needed from the Government is an intensive engagement strategy with public bodies such as the council, the health service and the third sector. Given that no Minister has even met the leader of our city council since the Government came into office, will he implement an intensive engagement strategy now?

[Chris Philp]

I look forward to meeting Glasgow MPs next week and the leader of Glasgow City Council shortly.