Labour's bid to "silence" women terrified by the asylum housing crisis is identical to the treatment of grooming gang victims, ministers have been told. Andy Burnham and Shabana Mahmood were accused of using "class as a weapon" to ignore warnings that they will "suffer" at the hands of men "from cultures where women are treated worse than animals".
Women descend on Parliament
Ten women from Piddington descended on Parliament on Wednesday to demand that Labour shelves plans to house 1,256 asylum seekers next to the Oxfordshire village. They insisted ministers must "get a grip" on the "out-of-control immigration" crisis. But hundreds of MPs symbolically voted for the proposal, despite widespread public outrage, and rejected calls to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
Shadow women's minister Joy Morrissey launched a scathing attack on proposals to house migrants at Ministry of Defence Bicester, declaring the men will "blight" the area. She said: "The Government has said middle-class areas need to bear their fair share.
"Using class as a new weapon to silence concerns. It is a dangerous, lazy approach from a Government that is supposed to unite our country.
"This isn't about class, race or anything else that the party opposite wants to use to silence those speaking up. That technique was used to silence rape gang victims in our cities and towns, and it's appalling Labour has not learned from that scandal.
"This is about women speaking up about fears for their safety and their children. The Prime Minister should listen, the benches opposite should listen. They know these women and their communities will suffer.
"They know this because we already have proof. Communities across this land have seen their women's and girls' lives ruined. Ruined by a fundamental failure from this Government to protect them from the threat posed by men who come here illegally."
Meeting with Kemi Badenoch
The 10 women sat in the front row of the public gallery as they watched MPs tear Labour's plan to shreds. They then met with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, just weeks after she visited the village. The Tories used their Opposition Day to force Labour MPs to hear concerns about the Government's asylum plans. But Labour MPs symbolically voted for the proposals. Only the Conservatives and Reform voted against them.
Former home secretary Suella Braverman condemned female Labour MPs for failing to turn up for the debate. She said: "They [the women of Piddington] are angry, and they feel like no one in Government is listening to them. And these people are not far-right thugs.
"The women that I met, and indeed the men, many of them are elderly pensioners. Some of them are widowed and living alone.
"Many of them are parents speaking on behalf of their children. And this small rural village is fighting against the British state to protect itself. It is a scandal that no one in this Government is willing to listen."
Village vote and campaign concerns
Labour wants to house more than 1,200 migrants on the site for at least 10 years. The villagers of Piddington voted 285 to 26 to "secede from the UK and pursue self-determination" over the plans to house up to 1,256 asylum seekers in the former Ministry of Defence garrison half a mile from the village.
Local campaigners are demanding that the scheme be halted until full ecological surveys are completed to determine the potential presence of some of Britain's rarest and most protected bats and newts on the site.
But Tory MP Dr Kieran Mullan told his colleagues: "At the heart of this debate is whether women have a legitimate, reasonable concern to be worried about the people that are being placed in their communities.
"And I'm afraid to say that I do think the culture of the people very often placed in these constituencies is inferior to ours. I'm not afraid to say our culture, when it comes to women and girls has a lot to do.
"But it's significantly better than the culture towards women and girls in countries like Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and a whole range of countries.
"It's perfectly reasonable for women who are being asked to live alongside huge numbers of people coming, unvetted, from those countries to be concerned and have worries, and we should not be afraid to call that out. This has nothing to do with racism."
Mr Mullan told MPs that 46% of married women in Iraq have faced "spousal violence" and that between 70 and 90% of women in Pakistan have faced domestic abuse. He added that in Afghanistan "more than 90% of the population think that spousal physical abuse is justified."
The shadow justice minister added: "We have a culture of football hooliganism in this country. Predominantly white people engage in football hooliganism in this country,
"I'm happy to say that. It doesn't make me racist towards white people, and it doesn't make you racist towards other cultures when you point out their issues and their problems."
Leaflets and Home Office response
Numerous MPs highlighted the leaflets – exposed by the Daily Express – telling migrants not to rape or beat women. Ms Morrissey added: "The village of Piddington does only have 350 people, but the 1,300 migrant men will be a blight on their small village. Men from cultures where women are treated worse than animals.
"Men that the Government decided need a leaflet asking them to not rape women and girls. It isn't just their values being different from ours. It is taking advantage of nature, our values, our culture.
"Men who will pay no notice to a gently worded leaflet trying to encourage them to understand our cultural values. These men don't care about our values. They are here to take advantage of our welcoming culture."
Home Office minister Anna Turley had earlier said that the way asylum seekers have been housed until now has been wrong, but said a final decision on Piddington had not been made. "For too long, the way in which we house asylum seekers has not been fair," she said.
"Billions of pounds have been spent putting them up in hotels while communities have seen these hotels, often at the centre of their towns or cities become a symbol of a broken asylum system. Areas where housing costs are low, and which are already left behind were asked to bear more than their fair share."
She added: "While the Home Office has submitted a planning application to use MoD Bicester site for asylum accommodation, no final decision has been made." She praised Piddington campaigners for an "incredibly imaginative and very forceful" campaign.
