But of course, Reform MPs don’t care about the facts.
Yet another Reform UK MP has been found to be peddling untruths and outrageous claims in a bid to whip up fears over asylum seekers, although this time a BBC journalist fact-checked their claims live on-air.
Reform MP Sarah Pochin claimed on BBC Politics Live that it was ‘a fact’ that Afghans and Eritreans are more likely to carry out sexual assaults.
She said: “It’s a fact that this particular element, particularly Afghan, particularly Eritrean asylum seekers, have a particular problem with sexual assaults and sexual violence against women – it is a fact.”
Pochin went on to add: “You can turn your nose up. It’s people like you in denial that’s putting women like me at risk.”
Moments later, presenter Vicki Young told Pochin: “Can I give some context, please, around what you’re talking about, the Afghan and Eritrean sexual assault convictions.
“They committed 129 offences over three years, and that is out of a total number of convictions where the nationalities are known of 16,771. So that is the context around the numbers, I just think we should deal in facts.”
But of course, Reform MPs don’t care about the facts.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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