A Tory MP has been criticised after he blamed lengthy waits at accident and emergency departments on “people who don’t speak English”.
Nick Fletcher said his Doncaster constituency was “full” in a debate on the government’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
His comments led to him being compared to Enoch Powell, whose infamous anti-immigration “rivers of blood” speech sparked fury in the 1960s.
Fletcher, the MP for Don Valley, accused pro-immigration MPs of “burying your heads in the sand because you’re trying to make yourself look good in front of people to get votes”.
He added: “Your child falls over in the street and you have to go to A&E.
“And you get a 12-hour waiting list and the reason why the waiting lists are so long is because people don’t speak English in these places any more and this is what is happening.
“You then go to the schools and the classes are over-sized and this is what’s happening.”
As he was heckled by other MPs, Fletcher said: “You can shout me down, you can say what you want, I really don’t care.
″But this is what’s happening and we have to tackle this illegal immigration and this immigration because it is not fair.”
Fletcher’s comments were condemned by users of X (formerly Twitter).
One said: “Isn’t it an actual offence to lie in parliament?”
Another said: “Who raised up Poundland Enoch?”
Meanwhile, journalist Adam Bienkov pointed out the factual errors in Fletcher’s remarks accused him of spreading “the politics of the far right”.
And LBC presenter James O’Brien said Fletcher’s speech was “so completely devoid of understanding, humanity and intelligence that you wonder how he ties his own shoe laces unaided”.