Shabana Mahmood swears in House of Commons while defending asylum crackdown

Mahmood swears in Commons as she says she has been a victim of racial slursReuters

Transcript

00:00Finally, we urge the government to tread carefully, to act with fairness, to act with efficiency

00:05and to act with compassion for local communities in the UK who want this resolved, but also

00:10for asylum seekers too.

00:15Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I have to say to the Honourable Gentleman, I wish I

00:19had the privilege of walking around this country and not seeing the division that the issue

00:25of migration and asylum system is creating across this country. Unlike him, unfortunately,

00:31I am the one that is regularly called a fucking paki and told to go back home. It is I who

00:36knows through my personal experience and that of my constituents just how divisive the issue

00:41of asylum has become in our country. I do say to him, I wish it were possible to say that

00:47there isn't a problem here, that there's nothing to see and that it is all, in fact,

00:51just extremist right-wing talking points. But this system is broken and it is incumbent

00:57on all members of parliament to acknowledge how badly broken the system is and to make

01:02it a moral mission to fix this system so that it stops creating the division that we all

01:06see. And I do say to him, I do not think it is acceptable or appropriate for people in

01:11this place to not acknowledge the real experience of those who sit outside of this house.