Gillian Keegan quizzed on alleged Clapham attacker
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan raised eyebrows this morning after claiming the alkali attack on a mother and her children in Clapham had nothing to do with failures in the UK asylum system.
Ms Keegan told Sky News “this is not really about asylum”, when pressed about how it’s possible someone who committed a sexual offence was granted the status on this third try by a tribunal.
The top Tory’s claim was pursued by presenter Trevor Phillips, who blasted: “You say it’s not about asylum, but it obviously is.
“If he had not been granted asylum, he wouldn’t have been free to do what he did.”
Ms Keegan argued that there are already laws meaning that “anybody who commits crimes is not able to stay in this country. So if you have a sentence of more than 12 months you not allowed to stay, if you have a criminal record etc.
READ MORE: Robert Jenrick slams ‘naive’ vicars for helping asylum seekers game the system
The attack suspect is still being hunted by police (Image: Met Police)
“We don’t want to have people in this country who have criminal records.”
However it was immediately pointed out that the suspect involved in the alkali attack did have a suspended sentence of more than 12 months.
Asked again why the suspect was free to roam the streets, the senior minister said it’s “something that we need to get to the bottom of, but it’s not something that I have the details of”.
Asked again if she was concerned that a major asylum failure played a role in the attack, Ms Keegan repeated that she is not, and her concern is for the mother and her two children caught up in the shocking event.
Ms Keegan also refused to speculate on whether the Government might look at changes to the asylum tribunal system in light of the attack, saying it is “all outside my brief”.
The Education Secretary’s stance appears to be significantly at odds from the widespread Tory anger at the asylum failures that played its role in the event.
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Gillian Keegan raised eyebrows with her response (Image: Getty)
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On Friday former immigration minister Robert Jenrick blasted the system, warning it is “dangerously broken”.
Abdul Shokoor Ezedi, who is still being hunted by the police, only secured asylum on his third attempt because a priest vouched for his conversion to Christianity, making it too dangerous to deport him back to Afghanistan.
Mr Jenrick told the BBC that while the case raised “grave concerns” the events weren’t “a great surprise to me”.
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He said: “The argument I’ve been making for a long time is that our asylum system is dangerously broken and needs fundamental reform.
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“It appears from what little we know of this case, that this is in an individual whose asylum or humanitarian protection in the UK was granted by a tribunal - so probably by a judge, rather than Home Office officials - despite the fact that he had been convicted of a sexual offence and on the basis of evidence which we shall have to see may well be spurious or insubstantial, such as this suggestion that he had converted to Christianity.”
He urged the Home Secretary to conduct a “detailed review” of the case.
The former immigration minister warned that Britain is now “regularly” seeing cases of asylum seekers "making spurious claims to have converted to Christianity, aided and abetted by often well-meaning but naive, vicars and priests”.
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