Rob Newman, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for East Wiltshire, has slammed Danny Kruger’s votes in Parliament this week, as the MP voted against against exempting Afghans who served with the UK’s Armed Forces from being deported as part of the Rwanda scheme.
On Monday and Wednesday this week, the House of Commons debated amendments to the Safety of Rwanda Bill put forward by the respected former Defence Secretary Des Browne. The amendments would have exempted from being deported to Rwanda any Afghan who served with or aided our Armed Forces (for example, as an interpreter) during the UK’s operations in Afghanistan.
The Government refused to accept the amendments, and Mr Kruger, the Conservative candidate for East Wiltshire at the next General Election, cast his votes agreeing that Afghans who stood up to the Taliban should be eligible to be sent to Rwanda if they arrive in the UK via small boats.
Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for East Wiltshire, Rob Newman, said:
“Our Forces served with courage and valour in Afghanistan as they fought the oppressive rule of the Taliban. Alongside them were brave Afghans who put themselves at risk to stand up for a better future for their country – one not governed by terrorists and misogynists, but by democracy and the rule of law.
“The Government has failed and continues to fail these people – first in the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, then with their shambolic ‘Relocations and Assistance Policy’.
“After denying Afghans a legal route to the UK, now Ministers say that if anybody who served with our Forces makes it to Britain, they will round them up and pack them off to Rwanda.
“What kind of thanks is this to people who stood by British troops on the streets of Helmand Province? What does it say about this Government that they are prepared to hand a death sentence to Afghans and their families who put their own lives at risk by fighting the Taliban?
“Danny Kruger frequently tells us that standing up for the Army is his number one priority. If that were true, then he should display some of their courage. He should vote, not the way the whips tell him to, but to do the decent thing by people who had the guts to stand up for the values he tells us he holds so dear.”
