Asylum-seeker inbalance on agenda

UNDER discussion . . . Keir Starmer and Jim McMahon

OLDHAM MP Jim McMahon welcomed shadow immigration minister Keir Starmer to Oldham.


Mr Starmer visited Mr McMahon’s constituency office in Union Street to examine the dispersal of asylum seekers in the north.

The two Labour MPs walked around Oldham and heard from asylum seekers and other residents.

Last month the Chronicle reported the borough is one of the 10 local authorities nationwide with the highest concentration of asylum seekers — one in every 360 residents.

Both Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon, and Greater Manchester’s interim mayor Tony Lloyd have previously criticised the Government for the number of asylum seekers housed in the region.

In early 2015 there were 5,143 in Greater Manchester — six times more than in the whole of London.