Small boats 'top issue' for voters living in my landlocked area, says Notts MP

STRONGER ACTION CALL FROM LABOUR'S JO WHITE

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE

A NOTTINGHAMSHIRE MP says tackling the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats is the top issue for her area despite it having a “tiny number” of asylum seekers.

“We have to stop those boats,” says Jo White, Labour MP for Bassetlaw - a landlocked constituency.

The crisis in the Channel and concerns about the levels of immigration to the UK are the key issues being highlighted by Reform UK as it continues to climb in the polls.

Nigel Farage’s party took all but one Bassetlaw seat in the Nottinghamshire County Council elections, but Jo White says the focus needs to “shift away” from migration to issues including the cost of living, the NHS and education.

The MP says that shift can only happen when the Government takes further action to reduce Channel crossings. The number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats stood at 27,997 up from 18,342 for the same period last year on August 20.

Most of those who make it across the Channel apply for asylum but, despite Bassetlaw’s MP saying the crisis remains the top concern for her constituents, relatively few asylum seekers are in her area.

At the end of March, Bassetlaw was supporting 121 asylum seekers in a population of 120,000 0.1% of the population.

Ms White says the figure is now around 0.3% and that over half of those are people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Explaining why she felt it was such a salient issue in Bassetlaw, she said: “If you put it in perspective, it’s a tiny number. But what it is is a sense of fairness and people feel that it’s unfair that people come here.

There’s £7 million a day being spent on asylum accommodation our infrastructure is broken and yet we're having to fund dealing with asylum seekers.