Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset today asked Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden to halt the imminent arrival of the Portland migrant barge.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Drax said, “My constituents in Weymouth and on Portland and I are getting a little tired of being told that placing a migrant barge in our port is in the national interest. It is not in the national interest, nor in ours.”
“This barge, designed for 222, will accommodate 506 illegal migrants testing our already overstretched resources. It was imposed on us without any consultation.
“There are many concerns, both over the barge and on what 506 young men will do going around a seaside resort at the height of the summer, unmonitored and with little money.”
“Can my right honourable friend stop this and ask my right honourable friend the Home Secretary to do likewise?”
Standing in for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the Deputy Prime Minister replied, “Well I'm sure my honourable friend appreciates that we need to reduce the bill of housing asylum seekers in hotels, and we need to look at different measures to accommodate them. Of course, I am very happy to engage with the honourable gentleman, I am sure the Home Secretary will do so as well, to ensure that we can find a satisfactory solution in his constituency that protects his constituents’ interests.”