MP tells political refugees to shut up

7.45.53pm GMT Mon 4th Dec 2006

Free speech for political refugees should be ended, according to local Conservative MP Mark Field

Westminster MP Mark Field has told MPs that political refugees in Britain should have to shut up about the political persecution from which they have fled - or face being sent back.

Speaking on the floor of the House of Commons, on 30 November, as MPs quizzed the Home Secretary about the death of Alexander Litvinenko from radiation poisoning, the Conservative MP said:

"Should we not now give serious consideration to ensuring that people who come to this country and who intend to remain political agitators against other sovereign states are not allowed to stay?"

Responding, Westminster Liberal Democrat Stuart Bonar, said:

"If the last Conservative Government had followed this kind of policy then political refugees from racist South Africa in the 1980s would not have been able to speak out against apartheid. Those fleeing today's Zimbabwe, Burma, North Korea, or any number of equally nasty regimes would be barred from pushing for democratic reforms in their own countries.

"Just think, if Britain had followed in the 1930s what Mr Field is proposing today then those who fled here to escape the Nazis and who spoke out against that regime could face being sent back to Germany. It simply doesn't bear thinking about.

"What Mr Field is suggesting is at best ill-conceived and at worst coldly inhumane. What is worse, nowhere in his words to the House of Commons last week did he express any sorrow that a man has endured a drawn-out and painful death.

"Perhaps we need an MP who thinks a little more before he speaks. Then again perhaps we should not expect too much from the political judgement of an MP who, according to the register of MPs' interests, has accepted free travel from the Communist Party of China - not exactly the number one friend of human rights for the people of China."

Mr Litvinenko fled to the UK from Russia in 2000. He claimed asylum, which was granted. He became a British citizen earlier this year.