Labour MP For Hartlepool Says "Broken" Asylum System Needs Review After Riots

The new Labour MP for Hartlepool has said he has “deep frustrations” about the lack of openness and transparency of private companies operating in the UK asylum system, but insisted this was a “separate conversation” to tackling the riots affecting his constituency and other areas.

Rioters have taken part in violent clashes with the police in many locations over the past week, with at least 11 people arrested in Hartlepool so far and many more across the Teesside region in north east England. 

The worst disturbance in Hartlepool took place on the evening of Wednesday 31 July, with rioters attacking police with missiles, glass bottles and eggs, and setting a police car alight. Two boys aged 11 and 14 were among those arrested in the aftermath, and others arrested have been accused of violent disorder while shouting racist and Islamophobic chants.

Jonathan Brash is the Labour MP for Hartlepool, having been elected for the first time at the General Election in July. He told PoliticsHome he viewed the riots as a “tiny minority of violent folks”, and that there was not “any excuse or any justification” for the violence on the streets. 

However, he suggested that going forwards, a separate conversation would need to be had about the “capacity” of local areas to be able to deal with issues surrounding immigration and asylum – something the new MP has already brought up in his first weeks in Parliament. 

“One of the deep frustrations that I have with the system that we've inherited is that you get private companies who are tasked with housing asylum seekers, and they're not required to interact on any level with the local community, via the local authority or anywhere else,” he said.

“Openness and transparency should be an important